ICTP President Geoffrey Lipman pledges support for the Vanilla Islands

Geoffrey Lipman writes: “I attended my first Seychelles Carnival this month… hopefully it won’t be the last (a reflection not on my advancing years but on what a great event it turned out to be).
It made me think about the opportunities for our sector when you really engage at the local level, when you think people all the time, when you reach out for like-minded collaborators, and when you leverage the immense power of the media – social and traditional.

There are few people who understand this better than my friend Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles’ ebullient Tourism Minister and his equally skilled Tourism Board CEO, Elsia Grandcourt.

For three days of sheer enjoyment for residents and visitors, I watched them handle with calm and charm, the uncertain weather, massive influx of tourists, unpredicted dramas, and the constant high levels of excitement that great events engender.

By great carnival standards – like Brazil, Trinidad, or Notting Hill (all represented among the 20+ floats and world-class entertainers) this was small scale – but Seychelles, and even the larger Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands Group are small countries, and as the economist Schumaker famously said “small is beautiful” in his essays “Economics as if People Mattered.” I have the feeling that Alain St.Ange and his team absorb this stuff for bed-time reading.

The challenge, of course, will be how to keep that beautiful feeling as the carnival grows in the years ahead, how to keep partners engaged, how to keep visitors enthralled, and above all how to keep locals happy. Even more so if the rumours of oil in the territorial waters harden. My old friend, the founding President of Seychelles, Sir James Mancham, says that the key is in the Creole people who have absorbed so many ethnicities into their DNA, that they are capable of adapting to change with a smile and equanimity.

It might also be something in the nature of the land and its broader population. Seychelles is also special in its geography and biodiversity. A granite extension among an ocean of volcanic intrusions, it’s said to be at the pivot point of the great Gondwanaland split when India and Asia drifted north and Africa went south. Unique animals, like the giant tortoise, vegetation like the legendary coco de mer nut, and I’m told the best bone fishing you can find on the planet are to be found here.

What becomes even more interesting is when you extend the tourism potential out to the entire Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands Group – the sophisticated beauty of Mauritius, the romantic Gallic flair of La Reunion, the raw untapped beauty of Madagascar, and the underdeveloped Indian Ocean charm of Comoros and Mayotte. All joined umbilically to the emerging tourism colossus of Africa with its 1 billion-strong market, vast natural resources acting as a magnet to Chinese trade and tourism exports with growing links through the massive Gulf travelism air hub.

This is an unlimited, untapped potential in an emerging, global, green economy where nature, heritage, and experiences will be at the core of tourism demand and seamless airline service is at the heart of product delivery.

It’s why I was so excited to represent ICTP – the International Coalition of Tourism Partners – at the carnival along with our Chairman Thomas Steinmetz and to pledge our support to the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands in their quest for green growth and quality. We will look at how to build a Green Growth 2050 roadmap, how to get better air services, and how to increase investment using crowdpacting Internet systems. Which, of course, means going back to see the results of our collaboration next year – at carnival time of course… it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.