Seychelles boosts efforts to attract German tourists

The Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) has boosted its efforts to attract more German tourists with media interviews and a new flight service between Germany and Seychelles.

STB’s chief executive Sherin Francis held three media interviews in Germany to discuss Seychelles’ tourism with a focus on the meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) industry.

Interviews were held with Hans-Juergen Heinrich, publisher of the magazine, events – Das Management Magazine fuer LIVE-Kommunikation; Stefanie Paul, freelance journalist for German newspapers such as Berliner Zeitung, Berlin Kurier and Koelner Stadt-Anzelger; and Stefanie Bisping, a renowned German travel journalist.

During the interviews, Mrs. Francis gave an update about new hotels and destination management companies in the destination. She revealed that France is the biggest market for European MICE business for Seychelles, while Germany, India, Russia and South Africa have shown a strong growth in this segment as well.

Mrs. Francis also promoted leisure tourism in Seychelles by highlighting the many vacation opportunities that travelers can find in the destination.

Another major point of discussion centered on Air Seychelles, the national airline of the Republic of Seychelles, which has celebrated the launch of its new, twice-per-week service between Düsseldorf and Seychelles.

“Germany has always been one of our key source markets. As Seychelles relies heavily on the tourism industry for over 20% of its GDP, we are pleased to welcome more German air travelers to our tropical islands by establishing a much-anticipated, non-stop air bridge between our countries.”

The new Düsseldorf service was launched on March 31 with a cocktail event at the highest lounge bar in Germany. Flights operate two times per week on an Airbus A330 aircraft equipped with 254 seats, Wi-Fi internet access, lie-flat seats in business class and in-flight entertainment systems at every seat.

Even as the STB boosts its efforts to attract tourists from international markets, it remains focused on maintaining a balancing act between tourism and sustainability. A cap on large hotels and visitor arrivals was put into place after Seychelles was found to have the purest air on the planet by the 2016 Environmental Performance Index.