Another successful Nordic Roadshow: Seychelles Tourism Board attracts new agents

The Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) attracts new agents to sell the destination as it took to the road for the fifth Nordic Roadshow in five cities held between September 24 to September 28.

Each day of the roadshow, STB and its partners took to a different city – Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki and Aarhus in Denmark – to meet the key players on the market.

The roadshow also provided the perfect platform to continue building and strengthening relationship with the main partners as well as acquire new ones with potential for our 115-island archipelago.

STB’s Marketing Director for Nordics, Ms. Karen Confait, represented the Seychelles Islands. Ms. Confait mentioned her satisfaction that the Nordic Market has been growing steadily over last few years and that participation to such events remains important to keep the numbers up.

“Such events have enabled us to considerably reaffirm our presence as well as increase destination awareness. With more and more partners participating each year, we are very encouraged by the response from the trade,” said Ms. Confait.

She added that the roadshow has the right formula to showcase the islands and all its diversity as well as the various hotels, DMC’s and airline products.

“The roadshow’s success over the years has brought us new business and through the effort of the entire tourism industry we feel we can continue to grow this region as there is still a lot of potential,” added Ms. Confait.

For the fifth edition, the roadshow took a new format. The evening event in the four Nordic capitals started off with a welcome where those present had the chance to mingle. This was followed by a b2b workshop where each partner conducted one to one discussion with the travel trade.

Next on the programme for the evening were short 5-minutes teaser presentations from each partner in between the dinner courses. The shorter presentations allowed the partners to focus on their USPs and highlights. In Aarhus a smaller lunch event was organised.

Each evening ended with a prize draw where two winners won a fantastic trip to Seychelles with flights sponsored by Qatar Airways and accommodation and services by the hotels and DMC’s.

At the end of the roadshow Ms. Confait commented that the new format worked well. Positive and encouraging feedbacks were given by both the partners and the travel trade.

Talking about the new format, Carmen Javier, a representative from Emirates Sweden, said that it made “the event more dynamic and the chances of meeting, greeting and initiating new activities and business are greater.”

Representing Maia Luxury Resort & Paradise Sun Hotel, Ferruccio Tirone, appreciated and enjoyed every single moment spent travelling across the different countries.

“I sincerely found it very rewarding for TSOGO SUN to be part of it. The combination of the seated workshop with the 5 minutes stand up presentation worked really well and so did the networking drinks upon arrival which allowed each of the partners to introduce themselves to the guests and start making contacts,” added Tirone.

Other partners on the team included Ash Behari from Coco de Mer Hotel & Black Parrot Suites, Judeline Edmond representing Creole Travel Services and Vicky Jafar hailing from The H Resort Beau Vallon Beach. Kempinski Resort Seychelles was represented by Rizwana Humayun, Masons Travel by Ian Griffiths, 7° South was represented by Yvonne De Commarmond.

Also taking part in the roadshow were Patricia de Mayer from Banyan Tree Seychelles, Amanda Lang from Blue Safari Seychelles, Carmen Javier, Maritha Nerstad, Tanya Milad from Emirates, and Pia Lind, Karin Wellington-Ipsen, Nina Astor, Eunice Raila, Pia Dinan and Nils Askeskjaer from Qatar Airways.