Minister Marthinus Van Schalkuyk, the South African Minister responsible for Tourism, and Minister Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister for Tourism and Culture, met on the sidelines of the SADC Ministers of Tourism Meeting last week in Mauritius to discuss cooperation between South Africa and the Seychelles.

This opportunity enabled Minister St.Ange to discuss with his South Africa counterpart the coming Routes Africa Forum that will be taking place in Seychelles in July and to personally invite Minister Van Schalkuyk to be in Seychelles for that forum and for him to also address the forum in Seychelles alongside his Director General.

Seychelles and South Africa have enjoyed long years of friendship and cooperation, and both Ministers agreed to work to further strengthen the existing friendly relations between South Africa and Seychelles.

Routes Africa 2012 will rally in Seychelles Airlines flying in and out of Africa, civil aviation authorities, and tourism boards. Seychelles won the bid to host that forum following the participation of a delegation from Seychelles to the World Routes Forum in Berlin last year where Alain St.Ange addressed the plenary session of the forum. Minister Alain St.Ange (at that time CEO of the Tourism Board); Gilbert Faure, CEO of the Civil Aviation Authority; and Elsia Grandcourt, CEO of the Tourism Board; alongside Glynn Burridge from the Tourism Board; and Florence Marengo of the Civil Aviation Authority made up the joint Tourism Board and Civil Aviation Authority delegation from Seychelles.

It is expected that a representative of SAA (South African Airways) will also be part of the delegation led by Minister Marthinus Van Schalkuyk to Routes Africa 2012 in Seychelles. This will be the first visit by Minister Van Schalkuyk to Seychelles. The RETOSA Board (Southern Africa Tourism Body) will also be meeting in Seychelles during that same period to coincide with the coming of Routes Africa 2012 to Seychelles.