London has the flash-based Bluetooth-ordering Inamo restaurant, Japan the ramen vending machines, and soon, the Piazza Giovanni Omicciololi in Italy will play host to a chain of Seychelles Creole restaurants, which will promote the Seychelles image through its cuisine and the projections of video images.
These high-technology apparel restaurants, which break away from the traditional restaurants, will be linked with a server where footages of the Seychelles, video clips, adverts, and news of the Seychelles will be aired to the customers. “Le Cordonnier” takes it even further by creating interchangeable panels, where images of clients in the restaurants are captured through a camera and viewed live or on the web within the chain of restaurants and that of the Seychelles.
This concept was unveiled to Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister for Tourism and Culture, by Italian businessman, Giovendra Pietro, the owner of a franchising company.
In the presence of the Seychelles Broadcasting Corpration Chief Executive Officer, Antoine Onezime, and the Principal of the Seychelles Tourism Academy, Flavien Joubert, Mr. Pietro said that the opening of “Le Cordonnier” is an unbeatable way to target Seychelles advertising in Italy – one of Seychelles’ niche markets – through the people already in the restaurants.
He explained that Seychelles advertising in Italy will be free of charge and memorandums of understanding will be signed between key partners of this project such as the Seychelles Tourism Academy. The latter said he could eventually benefit from professional exchanges where Seychellois students are trained in these Italian restaurants and the Seychelles Tourism Academy could be connected with these establishments through video conferences and projections.
The Seychelles Minister, Alain St.Ange, has given a thumbs-up for this project saying that “he commends and supports new initiatives targeting [the] Seychelles niche market.”
Minister St.Ange said: “Seychelles will reap benefits from the opening of these restaurants, because they are not only market-oriented, but they are advertising the different facets of the Seychelles as a tourism destination through its cuisine, its culture, and the arts.”
The CEO of the Seychelles Broadcasting Cooperation, Mr. Antoine Onezime, said that the “SBC will consider the proposition to feed ‘Le Cordonnier’ with the news of Seychelles but will put into study the technicalities of this project.,”
Mr. Pietro has estimated that one of his Italian restaurants can cater to nearly 190 clients per day, or an average of 58,900 clients yearly. His target is to be able to sustain the overture of 50 restaurants, and Seychelles’ promotion could be viewed among 2,990 clients. According to him, this kind of promotion could bring nearly 140,000 Italian visitors in the Seychelles annually. Mr. Pietro is the husband of Monette Rose, the Seychelles Tourism Board’s Manager in Italy.
The official opening of the first restaurant in Rome is expected to take place in the coming weeks by Minister Alain St.Ange.
