During his opening address at the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) Marketing Review on Tuesday, January 14, 2019, at Eden Blue, Didier Dogley, Minister for Tourism Civil Aviation Ports and Marine, expressed satisfaction over the constant and gradual increase in numbers of visitors and receipt over the past 5 years.
Minister Dogley stated that the latest figures released by Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) confirmed a provisional increase in revenue for 2019 from the tourism industry amounting to USD576.4 million equating to a little over 8 billion Seychelles rupees.
Congratulating the tourism partners present, the Tourism Minister reaffirmed that the success of Seychelles tourism industry is dependent on the collective effort of its stakeholders and partners.
He mentioned that according to tourism counterparts in Mauritius and Maldives, Seychelles considered as the best model in the region and referred to the local policies in place as one of the key contributors to the gradual, continual and sustained growth in both visitor numbers and receipt in revenue.
Minister Dogley further reminded the trade that the Tourism Master Plan-Destination 2023 launched in 2019 provides the guideline to safeguard the destination’s brand and image as an upmarket, selective and pristine tourism destination.
During his speech, he also prompted the assembly that the moratorium has enable the department to revisit and clean up a long list of accommodation projects of over 3000 rooms.
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“We now know who the serious investors are and who are not and what measures we need to take to facilitate serious investors and clean up our investment systems. It has also provided room for us to empower Seychellois investors, many of whom have taken the opportunity to invest in small tourism establishments resulting in the majority of rooms being in the hands of locals,” said the Minister.
Minister Dogley mentioned that in 2019, the tourism department licensed 61 new tourism establishments of less than 25 rooms adding 243 additional rooms to the destination’s catalogue.
He also recommended that players in the industry including Ministry of Tourism, the STB, the local trade, DMCs, hotels and airlines join forces to ensure that Seychelles remain a prime destination in the region in terms of visitor’s satisfaction.
“The tourism industry is one that will always thrive if we know how to keep enticing people to visit our beautiful islands. Our pristine environment is critical to our success but one of the persistent challenges we face is that of providing value for money to our tourists. We surely do not need to be reminded that the international tourism arena is a very congested and highly competitive one with tourists now equipped as never before to sniff out the best deals via the plethora of social media and other forums available to them,” said Minister Dogley.
MEDIA CONTACT: STB News Bureau, Tel: +248 4 671 354 / +248 4 671 313, [email protected] www.seychelles.travel
