Seychelles Tourism Board organizes cruise in Reunion

The Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) organized an event out at sea for Reunion travel trades to enhance and test the participant’s knowledge about the island paradise of Seychelles, all under a fun and relaxed, yet working atmosphere. It was an opportune time for STB to show appreciation towards the travel trade professionals for their engagement in selling Seychelles.

Dubbed ‘Apero Sunset by Seychelles’, over 40 Reunion travel trade professionals joined STB on a two-hour cruise out at sea to experience the destination. This was done by having the professionals get a taste of the Seychelles’ Creole cuisine and traditional dances.

By doing so, travel trade experts in Reunion were taken out of their working environment and placed on board one of the most luxurious Catamaran in the region, “Maloya”.

The innovative concept, organized on October 24 for the first time, is in line to STB’s marketing activities in Reunion to pitch Seychelles at the top of mind of Reunion travel trade professionals. Through an interactive Buzzer Quiz, the knowledge of the experts was tested on different thematic of the destination.

STB’s Chief Executive, Mrs. Sherin Francis, attended the event, which was part of her official mission to Reunion from October 21, 2018 to October 25, 2018. Ms. Bernadette Honore, Senior Marketing Executive based in La Reunion accompanied her.

The event on board “Maloya” presented Mrs. Francis with the opportunity to meet with the travel trade professionals and extend her appreciation for their engagement in selling Seychelles.

In her opening remarks, Mrs. Francis said that the Reunion market is a very important part of Seychelles tourism strategy, which is to keep on supporting small and medium size establishments, most of which are homegrown and owned by Seychellois.

“The growth of our market had been thanks to your devotion and efforts complimenting a lot of the work we do.  It is through your beliefs and conviction that we have been able to make Seychelles more visible on Reunion market,” said Mrs. Francis.

The chief executive continued by hailing the good work done by STB’s office in Reunion. She said that the company is proud of the decision to put an STB representative in Reunion. Ms. Bernadette Honore, who was also present at the event, was appointed as STB’s representative in Reunion in 2015.

“We have forged many new relationships and have become closer. We can definitely say we know and understand the market and the people better, allowing us to undertake many more activities which were unthinkable before we had a presence here,” said Mrs. Francis.

Seychelles is a magnificent holiday gateway for Reunionese and cannot be compared to many other island destinations. The fun way of discovering Seychelles proved to be a success among the travel agents who expressed their heartful satisfaction throughout the event.

On her behalf, Ms. Honore said introducing this concept of learning about Seychelles in a fun way is one of the many new concepts that STB will be introducing to travel trade partners in Reunion.

“Coming out with these new concepts is not solely a way for us to differentiate from other marketing activities already being implemented by other tourism offices on the market, but for Seychelles to remain at the top of mind of travel trade professionals in Reunion.

She added that these people play an important role in selling and proposing the destination to their clients.

“Words of mouth is a powerful marketing tool and having the agents experience this event and continuously talking about it is a good way for them to keep the destination at their top of mind,” said Ms. Honore.

During the event, Air Austral the airline partner gave two tickets on the Reunion-Seychelles route in Business class. A draw was held among Reunion Travel trade professionals.

The grand winner, an agent of Transcontinent walked away with the prize presented by Air Austral representative Brigitte Ravilly and STB Chief Executive Mrs. Francis.