Charters lift early arrivals |05 January 2006

The flight, which was originally due to arrive in the morning, diverted to Mombasa because of Wednesday morning's heavy rain and arrived in Seychelles at 3:40 in the afternoon.

It follows an earlier charter flight from Italy, carrying over 250 people, and two flights, each carrying around 140 visitors, from Russia.

Guillaume Albert, public relations manager of local destination management company (DMC) Creole Travel Services, welcomed the influx of visitors.

"Seychelles always wanted to stay away from the concept of mass tourism ... but a lot of the hotels are screaming for help because they need to be filled," he said while waiting at Pointe Larue airport for the Italian charter flight.

With the majority of recent hotel investments in Seychelles focusing on 4 and 5-star developments, concerns have been raised that the country lacks the capacity to cater for other sectors of the tourist market.

However, Mr Albert said that the development of the Seychelles Tourism Board's (STB) "Seychelles Secrets" scheme, which groups together small guest houses of the same standard, has helped tour operators find room space for large group holidays.

On hand to meet the flight was Juliana Grandcourt, the head of Alke Viaggi, the Italian travel company which had arrange the charter.

"Italian tourists like sunbathing, they like nature. I think Seychelles has to do something in future indoors," said Ms Grandcourt, as rain fell at the international airport.

Visiting the main Italian travel trade fair, TGI Incontri, in Rimini last year, STB executive chairman, Sylvestre Radegonde, said that, despite already being one of Seychelles' largest tourist supplier markets, Italy can still send more visitors to Seychelles.

"We have to do a lot of work, making more publicity," said Ms Grandcourt, explaining how to lure more Italian visitors to Seychelles.

According to Mr Albert, Alke Viaggi is Seychelles' largest Italian tourist supplier, sending over 5,000 visitors to Seychelles annually.

Tourists arriving on Wednesday's flight are due to leave Seychelles on January 11.