Seychelles exceeds set target of visitor arrivals for 2022   By Patrick Joubert   |18 October 2022

PS Francis (Photo: Patrick Joubert)

An important milestone for our tourism industry was reached over the weekend when the country’s set target of 258,000 visitors coming to our shores this year was surpassed.

It was the principal secretary for Tourism, Sherin Francis, who made the announcement during a press briefing yesterday at the Tourism department headquarters at Botanical House, Mont Fleuri.

The 258,000th visitor, whose identity will be made known later, arrived at the Seychelles International Airport on the weekend of Saturday afternoon onboard the 1.30pm Emirates’ flight from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The forecast of 258,000 visitors for 2022, in the country’s post Covid-19 tourism recovery, was set at the beginning of the year by the Tourism department during its marketing meeting with other tourism stakeholders.

Tourism arrivals in 2020 was 114,858 and in 2021, it was 182,849 the number of foreign visitors who arrived in the country. The highest number of visitors who visited our country in a year was 383,313 in 2019.

Mrs Francis said that surpassing the overall forecast of 258,000 visitors was an important milestone taking into account that during the estimation of the forecast, the country was still in the Covid-19 which was followed by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February, at a time when the latter was the country’s number one post Covid-19 tourism market.  

“So it’s an accomplishment for the whole country because we at the tourism department are just one part of the change but there’s a lot of other partners, the tourism operators and the various government departments that work hand in hand for us to be able to bring the visitors to the country,” PS Francis said.

PS Francis said that looking at the momentum that has been set and the current trend  in tourism forward bookings, the country is expecting 330,000 visitors by the end of the year.

She noted that the country has for the last three weeks been performing above the 2019 figures (89%) for the same period and that the winter schedule in Europe which has seen the return of Aeroflot from Russia, including extra chartered flights from Israel, are all supporting the recovery of our tourism industry to reach the expected 330,000 figure.

She said that the department is working with its local and international partners to make the country more visible as a tourism destination, including working with stakeholders to diversify their products to get visitors to spend more while on holiday. 

France is back as our country’s number one tourism market destination followed by Germany and Russia.