Yacht charter group celebrates 10th anniversary in Seychelles |08 July 2006

Some of the top sailing specialist tour operators from Germany were brought out for the trip, with more than 40 participants – including two journalists – treated to a two-week sailing itinerary to a range of different islands in the archipelago, aboard a flotilla of six catamarans from Dream Yachts.

An onshore programme, including a dinner at Chez Baptista sponsored by the Seychelles Tourism Board, was organised on top of the sailing itinerary, “not only to show to our participants the nice shores and seas of Seychelles, but also to give an impression from inside the islands, the culture, music and the people,” said KH+P managing director Hartmut Holtman.

KH+P held its first edition of ExtraTour Seychelles more than 12 years ago, when yacht charters in Seychelles were still in their early stages. KH+P offers sailing trips to the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Asia and the South Pacific in addition to the Indian Ocean, but has organised six of its 10 special ExtraTour events in Seychelles.

With travel by sea offering easy access to isolated coves and bays, as well the archipelago’s natural geography providing for short sailing distances between various islands, Seychelles is catching on as an ideal sailing destination, evidenced by increasing numbers of visitor arrivals listing yachts as their accommodation in recent years. That growth appears to be accelerating, with Seychelles registering a 10 percent increase in this category for the first quarter of 2006 (3,053 visitors) compared to the same quarter in 2005 (2,762 visitors).