The Seychelles Minister for Tourism and Culture, Alain St.Ange, has used the 48th RETOSA board meeting of the Tourism Ministers and the SADC meeting being held in Mauritius to call on Africa’s civil aviation authorities and their tourism boards to rally alongside the airlines of the world flying into Africa for the Routes Africa 2012, which will be held in Seychelles in early July.

Seychelles will be hosting the 7th edition of Routes Africa 2012, which will be held between July 8-10.

Elsia Grandcourt, the Chief Executive of the Seychelles Tourism Board, said in Mauritius that the “forum would be beneficial for civil aviation authorities, airlines, and tourism bodies of the African region and also to members of the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands within the Indian Ocean: Seychelles , Reunion island, Mauritius, Comoros , Madagascar, and Mayotte.”

The Executive Vice President of UBM Aviation Routes, David Stroud, echoed the following message for RETOSA members: “We would be delighted to welcome the members of SADC and RETOSA to Routes Africa 2012 in the Seychelles, to meet directly with decision makers within the air service development arena. Tourism boards are taking an increasingly targeted and strategic role in the aviation arena, using partnership with both airlines, local and international, and airports to help build demand and grow competitive aviation capacity within their regions. We look forward to welcoming them to the event.”

“Routes Africa 2012 will also see the involvement of cruise ship companies, as Africa is one area where fly-cruises do work and that the possibility for such activities does really exist,” Alain St.Ange said.

The promotion of Routes Africa 2012 has now started, and the conference organizers are currently in Seychelles to firm up all details for the Africa event.