Seychelles delegation completes successful Seatrade Convention in Miami, USA
A Seychelles delegation consisting of the Tourism Board’s Glynn Burridge, Mason’s Travel’s Lenny Alvis, and Eric Renard from Creole Travel Services completed a 4-day stay in Miami, Florida, where they represented Seychelles at the Seatrade Convention between March 13-15, 2012.
The annual Seatrade Convention is a forum dedicated to the global cruise ship industry, its partners and suppliers, and is the largest of its kind. “It is important that Seychelles maintains a presence at this kind of forum,” stated the Seychelles Tourism Board’s Tourism Consultant Glynn Burridge, “because it provides us with visibility and also an important means of networking.”
During the course of the convention, the Seychelles delegation held a number of meetings with the representatives of international cruise ship companies and other industry players.
On the last day of the convention, Glynn Burridge was invited to be a member of a panel discussing the role of tourism authorities in launching successful cruise/fly programs where he had an opportunity to speak about Seychelles as a destination and raise the profile of the islands on an international stage.
“This is exactly the exposure that Seychelles needs,” explained Glynn Burridge, “because it places much-needed focus on our islands, what they offer, and what it is that makes them a successful tourism destination.”
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Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister for Tourism and Culture, has said that Seychelles is out to work with cruise companies to ensure the Indian Ocean remains on their cruise itineraries and that the wonders of the Seychelles archipelago becomes accessible to cruise passengers. “We remain one of the last dream destinations on Earth with possible stops on granitic islands and on coral islands. We have two UNESCO World Heritage Sites – the Vallee de Mai on Praslin Island, the home of Seychelles’ unique Coco de Mer Nut, and the Aldabra Atoll with its 150,000 giant tortoises and more. We have the African Banks, the 21st Century Robinson Crusoe-styled dream island, and many more such ‘out of the world’ stops for cruise ships, and this on a year-round basis, because Seychelles is the tourist destination that enjoys perpetual summer with its clean white sandy beaches lapped by clean and clear warm turquoise blue seas,” said Minister St.Ange.