Seychelles Tops African Tourism

Seychelles in the media glare at ITB Berlin

The delegation that was representing Seychelles at ITB Berlin last week met members of various media houses in Germany to promote the national airline’s twice-weekly direct flight, Seychelles-Dusseldorf.

The press conference and a cocktail reception at the Seychelles stand, which was attended by the Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Taleb Rifai, were both organized in collaboration with Air Seychelles.

ITB Berlin, which is said to be the world’s largest tourism trade fair, was held from March 8 to 12 in Germany.

Speaking at the press conference, the Chief Executive of the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB), Sherin Francis, said the German market is already performing extremely well and is very buoyant.

“With the twice-weekly Düsseldorf flight, it can only get better! The positive development in air connectivity has created a lot of excitement in the market,” she added.

“We look forward to working together with the Air Seychelles team and with you our German partners to ensure that we achieve the most from this new connection.”

It is important to note that the support of airline partners is needed to ensure that the successful performance of the Seychelles’ tourism industry. STB values their support and ensures that the relationship remains a strong one, Mrs. Francis said.

“Discussions held and plans laid with the different partners will surely help in maintaining the positive momentum of the industry for the rest of the year.”

She added that the presence of the Seychelles’ delegation at ITB was to further cement the ties that have bound Seychelles to the German market since the outset of the country’s tourism industry.

“It is indeed encouraging to see that our much-valued German market continues to perform, as the recent batch of visitor arrival figures shows. In 2016, Seychelles enjoyed yet another record year for tourism arrivals, finally breaking through the 300,000-visitor ceiling, and early in 2017, we witnessed a truly ground-breaking increase in arrivals of over 30%.”

In this troubled, unsettled world of ours, Seychelles remains an oasis of calm and tranquility while our reputation for being the land of perpetual summer is still intact, she added.

Mrs. Francis concluded by thanking the team from Seychelles who were part of the delegation.

Aside from the press conference, Mrs. Francis was also interviewed by Martina Feyerherd from fvw Magazine, a specialist magazine for tourism and business travel.

In a second interview, Mrs. Francis met Eike Knall from The Radio Group, which was founded in 2007 on the basic premise of serving listeners with local radio.

The Radio Group operates 15 radio stations with more than 100 employees. Each station is unique to the market it is located in and employs local air talent.