Seychelles tourism tackles Indian market in earnest

The Seychelles Tourism Board, together with a broad range of industry players, are moving in earnest in India this year in order to introduce Seychelles as a new holiday option for Indian travelers.

The Seychelles Tourism Board, together with a broad range of industry players, are moving in earnest in India this year in order to introduce Seychelles as a new holiday option for Indian travelers.

Seychellesโ€™ penetration in that new market comes at a time when Air Seychelles is flying weekly to the Indian city Chennai, and Emirates airline, which operates seven flights a week to the islands, is also campaigning aggressively in India.

The tourism board has been studying the Indian market trends for a while after it opened its Asian Tourist Office in Singapore last year and started off with dedicated workshops for operators. Seeing the potential and huge ability of the Indian outbound market, Seychelles is now moving in to grab a bigger market share.

A delegation has left the country this week to attend the OTM Mumbai and OTM Delhi trade and consumer fairs respectively, in order to boost awareness on the destination, as well as showcase the different products.

The Tourism Board is expecting a good outcome from both events and for the tour operators to be able to secure some solid bookings from the Indian travel segment.

As a means to continue educating the Indian key partners about the destination, Seychelles will also host two workshops for Indian travel agents and tour operators in between the trade fairs.

The tourism boardโ€™s senior marketing executive for new emerging markets, Amia Jovanovic-Desir, said that India has come across as one of those markets with potentials for future growth.

โ€œReaching out to new emerging markets is one of our focus[es] for this year, and India is one market that we want to seriously tap into and really develop,โ€ she said.

She noted that since both Air Seychelles and Emirates are also targeting better business on the Indian route, it was an opportune moment for tourism industry players to come in and position Seychelles as an ideal holiday destination.

Seychelles already has traditional and cultural links with India, but the Tourism Board is now hoping that they can develop the touristic relationship so as to attract more tourists from that region.

It has earmarked some promotional activities this year that will boost awareness, as well as increase knowledge of Indian trade partners about what Seychelles has to offer to the different travel segments, with the aim of generating good results and increasing the number of visitor arrivals.

Other local partners attending the trade fairs and workshops are Air Seychelles, 7 degrees South, Masonโ€™s Travel, Select Seychelles, and Desroches Island.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

Share to...