Tourist offices across the Seychelles islands to be franchised

Through interaction with key personnel of the Seychelles Tourist Board (STB) two weeks ago while in Mahe, it was learned that in order to widen their reach across the various islands, the board has decided that a new modus operandum was needed to meet the challenges of today’s tourism business.

For both cost reduction, as well as better servicing tourists, only the key locations in Mahe at the International Airport and the Praslin aerodrome will remain in the hands of the STB, while added locations will join under a new franchise agreement or else will be privatized to selected applicants wanting to join hands with the STB.

The new offices will also function as general booking offices, earning commissions to the owner/operators, while STB’s main focus can then be on providing operational guidelines, describing policy, and doing the generic marketing for the country, while leaving the tourist information services largely to the private sector. This cooperation is a result of the new focus of the STB on becoming a strong business-oriented organization serving the private sector, while also fulfilling their public mandate.