Winning partnership between Emirates and Seychelles

Emirates Airlines announced that it is a winning partnership they have with the Seychelles Tourism Board, and they have repeated that they consider it a successful partnership as well.

Emirates Airlines announced that it is a winning partnership they have with the Seychelles Tourism Board, and they have repeated that they consider it a successful partnership as well. Emirates reacted as the Seychelles Tourism Board was awarded the Best Destination Marketing Campaign at the World Routes Awards 2012 in Abu Dhabi.

According to the World Routes organizers, Seychelles won the award on the strength of being recognized for the value of their revolving 5-year strategic marketing plan. They also highlighted the proactive approach of the Seychelles Tourism Board for its media campaigns. According to Routes, Seychelles continues to be recognized and referenced as the most successful host of the regional Routes Africa aviation forum, which took place in Seychelles in July 2012.

Seychelles has received valuable support in its international marketing campaigns via a number of excellent testimonials from airlines and has already been the recipient of 2 awards from UBM Aviation and Routes within a 12-month period. Praising Seychellesโ€™ proactive and collaborative outlook on marketing in front of a 2,700-strong audience, the organizers of the prestigious World Routes gave mention of Seychelles as โ€œspeaking the language of respectโ€ across its operational platform.

Emirates has said in documents made available to the World Routes organization that, through several years, both Emirates and the Seychelles Tourism Board have shown the will to work hand in hand towards a common goal.

โ€œThis has brought concrete results in growing the awareness of Seychelles throughout our network and has contributed to the successful development of new markets. The Seychelles Tourism Board has proven to be one of the most dynamic promotion agencies we have worked with. We take this opportunity to congratulate them for their dedication and never-ending efforts in developing the tourism sector of the Seychelles. We are pleased to officially recognize the efficiency of their support. In the past years, we have developed joint campaigns to promote the destination. This was formalized by a Memorandum of Understanding, which we signed in November 2011, aiming at enhancing our efforts to promote the destination. To demonstrate its commitment to this partnership, Emirates announced its support for the Seychelles Carnival.

It was with great pleasure that we supported the Seychelles Carnival 2011, a major event for the Seychelles Tourism Board and the whole archipelago. For the first edition of the carnival, Emirates created awareness around the event in new markets such as Czech Republic, Spain, Brazil, Russia, the Middle East, India, Korea, China, and Japan. Emirates opted for the title of โ€œOfficial Airlineโ€ for the second edition of the Carnival (2012). The in-flight magazine of Emirates, โ€œOpen Skies,โ€ carried a promotional picture of the โ€œCarnaval International de Victoriaโ€ in its February issue, a few weeks before the event. In a move to encourage interaction and participation of young Seychellois in the 2012 Carnival, Emirates and the Seychelles Tourism Board announced a joint drawing competition for primary schools of the archipelago. Pupils aged between 6 and 12 years were called upon to depict the Emirates float for the 2012 Carnival in a drawing, under the theme โ€œMix of Cultures.โ€

The design of the Emirates float was actually inspired by the winning drawing. Another promotional activity Emirates Holidays and the Seychelles Tourism Board came up with was the โ€œBe Smart, Be Carnavalโ€ campaign. This was a joint undertaking launched to target travel agents from specific markets. Travel agents from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Russia, Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey were invited to keep track of their bookings to the Seychelles. The four, top performing travel agents were chosen and sent to the โ€œSeychelles Carnaval International de Victoria.โ€ Various joint campaigns have been organized. In February 2010, for example, Emirates Holidays and the Seychelles Tourism Board participated in the Abu Dhabi Bridal Show to promote the Seychelles as a honeymoon destination. This was followed by proper campaigns to support this activity.

In the same vein, many joint familiarization trips have been organized together. โ€œAfter all the support we received, be it with regards to our operations to the Seychelles or joint promotional activities, it was no surprise when, in May 2011, the Seychelles Tourism Board, received the award for โ€˜Best Supportive National Tourist Officeโ€™ from Emirates Holidays in an important function in Dubai. This was testimony of the fantastic work being carried out by the promotional arm of the tourism industry of the Seychelles. It is in this frame of mind that we will continue to work with the Seychelles Tourism Board in future campaigns. Once more, we congratulate the Seychelles Tourism Board for its professionalism, dedication and vision in promoting the Seychelles and extend our heartiest thanks for all the support we have received throughout the years. We look forward to a fruitful collaboration and exciting times ahead,โ€ said Emirates in documentation made available to World Routes.

After receiving the Best Destination Marketing Campaign at the World Routes Awards 2012 in Abu Dhabi, Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism & Culturem said: โ€œThe Seychelles Tourism Board has been proactive and for this we have been recognized. We have worked to open new tourism markets as we have consolidated our existing traditional markets. We have worked with the press as never before, and the team at the Tourism Board have remained humble in speaking the language of respect at all times. Today we are happy and look forward to moving ahead, not in competition with any other agency or individual but rather in the spirit of cooperation, which we consider to be the only way forward to win for Seychelles.โ€

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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