Seychelles saw in March to April 2015, two consecutive months, its highest ever monthly tourism arrival.
For the period of January 2009 to April 2015, March and April of this year recorded the highest number of visitors with 25,129 and 25,038 visitors respectively.
The Seychelles Tourism Board has been attentive to the trend as the two consecutive months hit records.
Its Chief Executive, Sherin Naiken, said that the Seychelles Tourism Board’s marketing strategy is bearing its fruit.
“The figure is a positive sign for the Seychelles Tourism Board and for our country, because it represents the fruit of our concerted hard work,” Ms. Sherin Naiken said.
Miss Naiken went on to add that the increase in flight capacity among other factors, is a catalyst to the record-high figure.
In January 2015, Seychelles saw a 1% growth in tourism arrivals compared to the same period in 2014, with 16,521 visitors compared 17,521 in 2015.
The January 2015 figure set the ground for Seychelles to confirm that for the week ending Sunday, May 17, a remarkable 15% growth over the same period in 2014 had been recorded.
“This is a remarkable achievement for Seychelles which started the year climbing for the first time to this new height,” said Ms. Sherin Naiken, the CEO of the Tourism Board.
This year-to-date figure for 2015 shows 103,258 visitors arrived in Seychelles, or a 15% increase above that of 2014 (89,580). This figure is for a country with just 90,000 inhabitants.
France, Germany, Italy, United Arab Emirates, China, and Russia remained Seychelles’ leading markets.
The Seychelles Tourism Board said France (16,330 visitors) and Germany (12,746) remained in the lead as Seychelles’ top two core markets because of airline seats availability and options for visitors to fly direct or through hubs.
Italy, taking third position on the podium, remained according to the Seychelles Tourism Board a resilience market, which despite global and domestic economic crisis, bounced back with an 8% increase compared to minus 4 recorded in the same period in 2014.
The last time Seychelles had a historical record of monthly visitors recorded was in the month of October 2014, with a modest 1% increase in tourism arrivals from this period compared to the same period in 2013, or a total of 23,312 visitors. Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture, said as he congratulated the CEO of the Tourism Board and her team for their achievement, that Seychelles was doing what many see as plain impossible.
The private sector trade is working with the Tourism Board in what is seen as an example in a public-private sector partnership. The government is working closely with the private sector trade which remains willing and determined to work in that established partnership for the good of the country, its tourism industry, and for its people. These private-sector establishments and businesses are zooming ahead and are today enjoying record occupancy levels, the Minister said.
Minister St.Ange also addressed the question of yield from the country’s tourism industry and said that the dumping of rates by some of the larger establishments remains a challenge for the country and this remains a real problem to the smaller Seychellois home-grown establishments. “This is why the country has now moved focus from marketing, because this was working, and looking at the product as a whole and addressing a hotel classification and grading system. Yield from our tourism industry will not just increase by itself, we shall have as an industry to work together to ensure Seychelles gets its due returns from their industry that remains the pillar of its economy. As the government will continue to address, as serious facilitators, issues placed on its doorstep by the trade, the same trade must also look at the yield they are delivering for the country as they work as an industry through the avenues provided by the public-private sector partnership that exists,” Minister St.Ange said.
PHOTO: Visitors at Seychelles International airport arrival lounge
Seychelles is a founding member of the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP) .
