Seychelles holds its annual Tourism Marketing Meeting

The Seychelles relies heavily on its tourism offices overseas to promote and increase awareness of the destination, and so it is seen as important for them to touch base with the Tourism Board’s head office.

This ensures that key issues are addressed, the budget is set to allow activities to run smoothly, and strategies for the year are properly laid out.
During the two-day visit, the overseas representatives also met members of the tourism trade to network and to find out about the latest market developments and how they can integrate them into the Tourism Board’s own activities.

The annual Seychelles Tourism Board marketing meeting was held at the Tourism Board’s Bel Ombre headquarters and is on a much smaller scale than in previous years, with only the three overseas directors attending, because the Tourism Board has now categorized its overseas offices under three regions – Europe, Asia and Australasia, and Africa and the Americas.

Each region is managed by a director of marketing, who oversees the work of the different country offices.

The Tourism Board has said it will hold a bigger marketing meeting every two years, which will bring together all directors, regional managers, and marketing staff both locally and overseas, as well as its management team.

During this year’s launch, the Seychelles Tourism Board chief executive Alain St. Ange, said such meetings are important to ensure its marketing department is on the right track and achieving its objectives.

“We have a heavy task to promote Seychelles overseas and to bring more tourists to our islands. It is thus important that we network, strategize, and consult on projects to ensure that we draw maximum benefits from all our activities,” he said.

“I am always pleased with such consultative meetings, because we work on a transparent basis, and together we can agree on how best to move in different markets, how to deal with the constraints we face, and basically how to spread our activities based on the budget allocated.”

The overseas staff also has a chance to meet their local colleagues to go over changes in administrative procedures and learn about developments in the structure and running of the board.

The 2011 Seychelles “Carnaval International de Victoria” is one major project the Tourism Board is carrying out this year, and the meeting was a chance for the three overseas directors to report on the promotion of the event and the international floats that will be taking part from their respective markets.
Just before the close of the meeting, the directors presented their assessment and marketing strategy for 2011 to the country’s new High Level Strategic Marketing Committee.

The year, 2010 was the Seychelles best tourism year ever where the creole tropical islands established a record in its annual visitor arrival numbers.

PHOTO: The Seychelles Tourism Board’s Management and Overseas directors met in Seychelles to map out their marketing plans and activities for this year in a bid to increase the number of visitors.