Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture, said that tourism remains a vital industry in today’s troubled world. The Seychelles Minister said this as he was returning home after attending the UNWTO International Seminar on Multidestination Opportunities for Regional Integration that was held in Port-au-Prince in Haiti last week.
The President of Haiti, HE Mr. Martelly personally participated in a part of this meeting to show his support to the industry, and made time to meet tourism ministers who had traveled to Haiti for the meeting.
“We met in this Ministerial meeting that was chaired by Mr. Taleb Rifai, the Secretary General of the UNWTO, and together as a group of tourism ministers, we discussed the consolidation of tourism, this vital industry that remains so important for many an economy. For the Seychelles, tourism is and will remain the pillar of its economy, which is why a lot of effort is placed on the management of that industry in a working public/private partnership,” said Minister Alain St.Ange.
Seychelles has since the last couple of years, launched its own brand aptly called the “Seychelles Brand of Tourism,” and this is today being moved forward by refocussing attention on the product side of things as was announced by the Department of Tourism as they launched the start of their door-to-door visits of hotels and all licensed tourism establishments.
“We launched the start of our Mahe island door-to-door visits of tourism establishments with a visit to the Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Hotel & Casino and the Augerine Small Hotel of Terry Sandapin situated right on the beach of Beau Vallon. On Tuesday, June 2, Minister Alain St.Ange, PS Lafortune, PS Rose, and a delegation of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture accompanied by Sherin Naiken, the CEO of the Tourism Board, and Jimmy Savy, the CEO of the National Arts Council, will be on the west coast of Mahe visiting a number of small Seychellois-owned hotels and a large hotel, as well Seychellois involved in the world of arts and culture of our islands.
“We are continuing with our plans to visit each and every licensed establishment in our country. Hotels as a whole appreciate this exercise, but the Seychellois home-grown hotels on Praslin for example said when we visited them that they appreciated these visits and also appreciated the continued interest for the smaller establishments by the government,” said Minister St.Ange, who also said that for Seychelles, the largest hotel is all the small Seychellois small hotels pulled together.
