British travel agents promote Seychelles as a luxury destination |09 July 2011

They were hosted by Air Seychelles together with the Seychelles Tourist Board, Creole Travel Services, Four Seasons Resort and Raffles Seychelles.

The nine travel agents were Susan Mercer – senior travel consultant of Ashdown Travel, Holly Smith – personal travel account manager of  Reed & MacKay, Rob Arrow – European & UK travel team manager of TenUK, Kathleen Jones – operations supervisor of Abercombie & Kent, Jackie McKay – senior travel consultant of Sovereign Travel, Ursula Malon – director of Lear Travel, Michael Rosenblatt – responsible of VIP Desk at Cassis Travel, Paul Lodge – managing director of La Joie de Vivre and Alexandra Docherty – director global accounts of FRHI.

The group was accompanied by Sarah Hammond, the UK–based sales manager of Four Seasons Resorts and Carol Tumber, Air Seychelles’ sales and marketing manager based in the UK.

During their week’s stay here, the group stayed at the Raffles Resort on Praslin, experienced the Spa and wellness product and also visited Anse Lazio beach — listed amongst the world’s top scenic beaches.

On La Digue, they were hosted at the Domaine de L’Orangeraie and visited Anse Source d’Argent, also listed amongst the world’s top scenic beaches, and L’Union Estate with its colonial wooden house and courtyard featuring giant land tortoises, horses roaming freely, vanilla plantations. They also had a chance to see workers producing locally-made essential oils, copra and other traditional products.

On Mahe, the group spent two nights at the Four Seasons Resort at Anse Soleil where they were provided with on-hand information on all recreational facilities and services which include spa treatments, morning yoga sessions on the beach, introduction to surfing and had a try at Creole food cooking classes.

STB hosted the group to a Creole lunch at the Marie-Antoinette Restaurant, world-renowned for its Creole home-cooking menu and delicacies.

Prior to their departure, the British travel agents were hosted to a farewell dinner under the moonlight on the beach at Four Seasons — which definitely made a memorable ending to the familiarisation trip.

“The main objective of this visit was to get the travel agents to familiarise themselves with the products that Seychelles offer in luxury resorts — and this will help them sell Seychelles as a luxurious destination and get visitors to travel onboard Air Seychelles to the world’s most beautiful islands,” said Carol Tumber of Air Seychelles UK.