The Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture, has been continuing his “door-to-door” visits to DMCs (destination management companies) and airline offices.
Minister St.Ange started this series of visits two weeks ago on the Grand Anse side of the island of Praslin when he stopped at some 27 hotel properties. On Tuesday next week he is scheduled to be back again on Praslin to continue with his door-to-door visits of hotels. “This will continue until we have visited every establishment on the list of 117 hotels and guest-houses on Praslin and until we have sat down with the owners or managers of each establishment and heard directly from them what they see as challenges and also share with them what they feel they have achieved for themselves as their successes,” Minister St.Ange said.
These hotel visits also give the opportunity for Minister St.Ange and his delegation to meet with many of the staff at these establishments and to have a feel about their job satisfaction.
Last week the Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture and his delegation, which included Anne Lafortune, the PS for Tourism; Jenifer Sinon from the Seychelles Tourism Board; Sinha Levkovic from the Product Management Department of Tourism; and Sandy Ally, the PAM for the Minister’s Office, continued his door-to-door visits with calls on DMCs and airline offices.
Minister St.Ange was greeted by Oomar Ramtoola and Denise Rassool on his arrival at the Emirates Office in Victoria on Thursday of last week. Mr. Ramtoola, the Regional Representative of Emirates, had flown into the Seychelles especially for this meeting with Minister St.Ange and his delegation.
After greeting every member of the Emirates staff, Minister St.Ange and his delegation sat with the management team of Emirates Seychelles to hear from Emirates their views of the Seychelles tourism industry and the challenges they see.
“The meeting was frank, interesting, and very important for the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. We heard of positive news that for the two coming months the Emirates flights to Seychelles were already fully booked. We also heard of the challenge faced by Emirates with Seychelles being their only station where they still cannot offer online check-in. We spoke about applicable costs as we did hear of staff conditions of employment. All in all the meeting was seen by both parties as a positive exercise for Seychelles tourism,” Minister St.Ange said.
Seychelles is a founding member of the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP) .
