Seychelles Tourism Board CEO gives live TV interview in UK

The Seychelles Tourism Board’s CEO, Sherin Naiken, completed the first day of several PR meetings and interviews in the United Kingdom, with a live interview on CNN’s Quest Means Business on Monday. The day was marked by a series of interviews with some of the top media in that market.

Ms. Naiken gave the live interview at 2140 hours on the tourism economic recovery in Seychelles and she spoke of how Seychelles had successfully diversified its tourism markets when its main core markets had suffered setbacks in tourism arrivals.

She mentioned that Russia and China are two of the markets that stepped up and have become strong performing markets. However, she noted that Europe continues to be one of the high performers and provides the bulk of the tourism figures.

She also spoke of the Affordable Seychelles campaign which put a lot of emphasis on the “affordable” side of the destination and how there is a major demand for such accommodation options in Seychelles. The UK market, she highlighted, had gone the extra mile with the campaign by calling it “Luxury within Reach,” meaning visitors on a budget can also enjoy the beautiful islands.

Ms. Naiken said that Seychelles is performing well with its tourism arrivals and that the industry remains the main pillar and foreign exchange earner for the country.

The other big interviews where Ms. Naiken spoke were on three channels – BBC World, BBC Focus in Africa, and BBC Swahili. The interviews were pre-recorded and will be screened at a later date.

From there, Ms. Naiken proceeded to BBC Radio where she gave one of her most successful interviews, speaking about Seychelles, its challenges, and how the country can surmount these and turn them into opportunities for the Seychellois people.

In between the first meeting with Financial Times in the morning to the live interview late into the evening on Monday, Ms. Naiken and her team met with print, TV, and audio media, talking about the destination, all in a bid to increase awareness on the destination.

The day started with the first interview where Ms. Naiken made good use of her background in the investment field to give a clear picture of developments in the tourism industry and how these are impacting positively on the people. She also spoke of the current tourism landscape and how the total arrival figures are distributed between the main source markets and also emerging ones.

From there, the team proceeded to the Conde Nast Traveller magazine to discuss partnership opportunities and how the magazine can help the destination in its promotion drive.

CEO Naiken also answered questions from The Telegraph, talking about Seychelles’ performance both economically and tourism wise.

Brides magazine also discussed new proposals with the Seychelles Tourism Board and how they want to feature Seychelles more in the magazine, in a bid to help the destination better promote itself but at the same time also give their readers the opportunity to discover this beautiful destination.

The media meetings continue on Tuesday morning with a breakfast meeting for a group of press based in London and a final interview with Sunday Times, before the CEO proceeded to Germany to attend the ITB trade fair.