The competition was launched last month to mark the 40th anniversary of tourism in Seychelles, and interested participants have another three more weeks to submit their pictures that has a tourism promotional angle before the deadline expires on September 1, 2011.

Open strictly to schools in the age group of 12 to 16 years, participants have to capture that picture that “tell a story” about Seychelles, whether the extraordinary beauty of the islands, its flora or fauna, or simply people going about their daily lives.

It has to be a picture that is powerful enough to appear as posters or images in Seychelles’ tourism brochures. The winner will take home R10,000 (US$1,000 approx.) as star prize.

Speaking about the level of participation and interest in the competition’s first edition, Events Senior Coordinator Sharon Francois from the Seychelles Tourism Board said it was overwhelming to see so many school children coming forward to register.

“The interest is definitely very high, and we have both school children and parents calling to ask for more information or guidance along the way,” she said. Ms. Francois also noted that they had given out over 300 registration forms to the schools and over 100 had already been picked up at the different tourist information offices on Mahe, Praslin, and La Digue. “We are happy with the quality of pictures submitted already, and we are hoping to get even more as we still have three more weeks to go before the competition closes,” she explained.

The Chief Executive of the Seychelles Tourism Board, Alain St.Ange, has also commended the high level of participation in the competition and said judging of the pictures would be tough. “We have so many beautiful pictures coming in, from sunsets to the greenery of our mountains, and all of them tell a story of their own. We have some talented young photographers out there, and the tourism board is proud to have given them an opportunity to do something they like and win something for it,” he said.

Mr. St.Ange has also taken the opportunity to thank the sponsor of this competition, Jimmy Butt, the Seychelles Tourism Ambassador in Zambia.

“This is a way to involve from an early age our younger generation to think tourism and to think about the promotion of our vital industry that remains the pillar of our country’s economy,” Alain St.Ange said.