Minister Alain St.Ange of the Seychelles left Brazil where he was participating in the 2012 Explore South Africa Road Show Tourism Fair. The Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture was accompanied by David Germain, the Seychelles Tourism Board Director for Africa and the Americas, and Myra Fanchette, the Marketing Executive covering that big potential market.

Seychelles was participating alongside South Africa, Mauritius, Mozambique, Tanzania, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and they were joined by some 200 international hotel companies, destination management companies (DMC), and tour operators.

“Everyone present at this Explore South Africa Fair is after twin-center holiday possibilities with South Africa. Seychelles has been advocating the spirit of working twin-center approaches for the last two odd years, but anyone who understands tourism will appreciate that it is of no use having the best destination and product, if the world does not know you exist. Everyone will also appreciate that twin-center holidays become a reality only when you go and find the tourism market that could be attracted by a twin-center possibility. For Seychelles, it was ‘from the Big Five… to the Best Five’ campaign that was being pushed, emphasizing a South African Safari Holiday with a Seychelles Beach Holiday as an add-on, sitting but some four hours on,” Minister St.Ange said.

Air Seychelles has announced that it is increasing its flights to South Africa to four weekly flights. This is what the Seychelles private sector tourism industry had been advocating and pushing for, but unlike the Mauritius trade, they were not in Brazil to be looking for new business to make these two additional flights sustainable. Creole Travel Services of Seychelles was the only Seychelles private sector company working with the Tourism Board looking for the South American market as added support for the new additional Air Seychelles Flights to South Africa as from December this year.

Brazilians and Argentineans are already traveling in large numbers to South Africa, which is why South African Airways and their Ministry of Tourism are pushing ahead with serious marketing campaigns in South America. Explore South Africa is a dedicated travel trade fair, and islands like Seychelles have moved in to find their own niche market in this big potential and highly lucrative market. The twin-center approach with South Africa is a positive step for Seychelles tourism.

“Here we have direct nonstop flights between South Africa and Seychelles, and this market lends itself for what the Seychelles tourism industry has been looking for. Direct air services and nonstop flights to a market with a big potential for growth and where their own inbound tourism can be developed into add-on markets for onward travel like to Seychelles, for example, is the South African tourism hub for Seychelles,” Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture said.

The Seychelles delegation said as they left Brazil that the potential exists for a Seychelles holiday by Brazilians. They said that they were encouraged that Select Seychelles, a local destination management company (DMC), had now confirmed that they will be in Brazil for tour operator visits to help consolidate this new market.