As small as the islands may be on a global scale, Seychelles is drawing attention for the way it is managing the pillar of its economy, the tourism industry.
Seychelles is a small island state without the deep pockets and lavish budgets of many of its competitors and has had to learn to be savvy, nimble, and flexible in the ways it employs to raise its profile on the international stage.
Recently, the Hawaii Tourism Association cited the successful methods used by the Seychelles Tourism Board in creating awareness of their islands in an article about the Governor’s plans for Hawaii’s tourism budget.
President of the Hawaii Tourism Association was quoted as saying: “We [Hawaii] have a unique global brand. It does not take a lot of money in today’s world of technology to cater to this. Take the Seychelles as an example. The current CEO of the government-run Seychelles Tourism Board is Alain St. Ange. Alain has been the Seychelles ambassador for Hawaii-based global news publication eTurboNews for many years. Inspired by this idea to build a network of global tourism ambassadors, the Seychelles has developed an effective system with almost zero investment. The Seychelles has also built a global network of ‘Friends of the Seychelles’ journalists.
“Because of Seychelles’ fresh approach to tourism, a new record has been set by the number of tourists visiting Seychelles during 2010. The 2010 visitor arrival numbers is double the total population of the Seychelles or four times the working population of the island nation. The success of their tourism industry comes in the wake of a number of changes in operations, personnel, and marketing strategies that have been put in place since 2009, when Alain St. Ange took the helm of the industry as part of a government-private sector initiative to inject new dynamism into the tourism sector.”
“It is indeed encouraging when other prominent tourism destinations point to us as an example of success,” said Alain St. Ange, CEO of the Seychelles Tourism Board, “because it means that we are on the right track. It is not the first time that another country praises the way that we are managing the industry that is vital to the prosperity of our country, or even asks us to provide them with assistance and guidance in tourism-related matters.”
Seychelles has recently launched a number of tactical, lightweight programs designed to spread the word about Seychelles amongst a wider international audience in order to further grow its tourist arrival figures.
WHAT TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS ARTICLE:
- Seychelles is a small island state without the deep pockets and lavish budgets of many of its competitors and has had to learn to be savvy, nimble, and flexible in the ways it employs to raise its profile on the international stage.
- It is not the first time that another country praises the way that we are managing the industry that is vital to the prosperity of our country, or even asks us to provide them with assistance and guidance in tourism-related matters.
- As small as the islands may be on a global scale, Seychelles is drawing attention for the way it is managing the pillar of its economy, the tourism industry.
