Caribbean Tourism Islands & Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands discuss new level cooperation

On the sidelines of the recent tourism meeting in Morocco which was being attended by a large number of tourism ministers and by heads of tourism offices of many countries, Minister Alain St.Ange of the Seychelles and Mrs. Joy Jibrilu, the Director General of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, made time to meet to discuss closer cooperation between the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands and also between the Seychelles itself and the Bahamas.

Pascal Viroleau, the CEO of the Vanilla Islands, has always said that the Caribbean Islands and the Vanilla Islands face the same challenges and that member states of these two groupings should try to meet on the sidelines of a major tourism trade fair where most tourism ministers are present in any way as heads of their respective country delegations. Minister St.Ange of the Seychelles said that when he was President of the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands he had also met with Hugh Riley, the CEO of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, and also with the organization’s Carol Hay and both also agreed that these sister organizations should make time to meet sooner rather than later as the two groupings continue to face the same challenges to grow their respective region’s tourism cake.

In Morocco on the sidelines of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) & Kingdom of Morocco’s tourism meeting on the Atlantic Initiative for Tourism 2015 Conference, Minister Alain St.Ange, the Tourism Minister from the Seychelles, and Mrs. Joy Jibrilu, the Director General of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, agreed that Mrs. Jibrilu would be discussing with her minister and senior management the participation of Bahamas in the coming carnival in Seychelles where they would fly their flag alongside the best and most-known carnivals of the world. Mrs. Jibrilu of Bahamas is considering bringing a known and popular music group as part of their delegation.

“Participating in this cultural event is a sure way to raise your country’s visibility. It is very much like a tourism trade fair, but at this event in Seychelles, one uses one’s culture and in so doing the people of one’s country instead of glossy brochures to promote one’s country,” Minister St.Ange of the Seychelles said before adding that the carnival in Seychelles that is now known as the “Carnival of Carnivals” is the annual cultural gathering for the Community of Nations and very much like the UN General Assembly with the only difference being that in Seychelles the event being cultural in nature is beyond politics, color of the skin, and political affiliation and does not demand for country representatives to leave the hall when a President takes to the podium. “This event is promoting peace through culture, as it was launched believing that the future of humanity is through peace,” said the Seychelles Minister.

Minister St.Ange of the Seychelles also assured the Director General of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism that a large contingent of world press would again this year be in Seychelles to cover the event, and it is the press themselves who have called the event the unique “Carnival of Carnivals.”

Sherin Naiken, the CEO of the Seychelles Tourism Board, is now personally following up with the Official Letter of Invitation to the Bahamas.