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“Experience Seychelles: Our Home, your Sanctuary” Campaign goes live in Paris

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Keeping the beautiful island destination visible in Metropolitan France, the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) has launched an above the line advertising campaign in the French capital, Paris, as part of its communication plan for the autumn-winter promotional season.

The campaign launched in mid-October will roll for four weeks and involves the deployment of striking pictures of the destination as a means to entice the French market to visit the islands.

Initially scheduled for April, the campaign was postponed to October and is targeting visitors on a long-term period extending to 2021.

The STB office in Paris has opted for a dynamic and earthly medium of communication, as it will allow us to reach out to a significant percentage of active workers in selective business firms with high-income brackets employees, areas in Paris and La Défense.

Some hundred taxis, branded on both sides will be circulating in the capital city Paris and suburban areas. During the last two weeks of October and first two weeks of November, the taxis will be transporting the branded visuals of the destination with the tag line: “Seychelles, Our home your sanctuary.”

Equally part of the campaign, the STB team in Paris has extended the marketing stunt to corporations in the French capital, as it remains a strategic place used by regular holidaymakers. Allowing passers-by to dream, destination Seychelles will be featured in 275 ten seconds inspirational spots at 166 sites for 2 weeks to push the potential clientele to choose our destination for their forthcoming holiday.         

Speaking about the campaign, Mrs. Bernadette Willemin, STB Regional Director for Europe, stated that despite the current situation in several European cities, the efforts put into the campaign are essential for the survival of the destination.

She stressed that even though not all the prerequisites for travel are in place at the moment, it is important that Seychelles must remain visible

She further stated that it was a strategic decision to have an important part of the campaign stretched over the area of La Défense for it is Europe’s largest purpose-built business district.

The business zone is composed of 560 hectares (1,400 acres) in area, 72 glass and steel buildings (of which 19 are completed skyscrapers), 180,000 daily workers, and 3,500,000 square meters (38,000,000 sq. ft.) of office space.

“This is a period whereby European cities tends to be grey and foggy; hence the contrasting impact of our visual depicting sunshine, warm and vivid colors which could not go unnoticed even during the peak and rush hours,” said Bernadette Willemin.

Additionally, she added that the objective of this campaign is to remind the public that Seychelles is ready to accommodate the visitors and that our islands are considered one of the safest destinations to travel to now.

This campaign complements other promotional activities B2B or B2C currently being undertaken in France and also other markets across Europe ensuring that we keep the momentum going and keeping the Seychelles top in the mind of the people so that when travel resumes in earnest they will aspire to choose our destination.

#rebuildingtravel

MEDIA CONTACT: STB News Bureau, Tel: +248 4 671 354 / +248 4 671 313, [email protected]  

The Seychelles brings “Sun and Sea” to Belgium Trade Fair

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Sunny Seychelles made a magnificent appearance through the participation of the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) at the 62nd edition of Salon des Vacances, which was held from February 6, 2020 to February 9, 2020 in Brussels, Belgium. 

The salon des Vacances, a consumer event targeting the public, is the largest tourism event in Belgium with over 100,000 visitors, 800 exhibitors and 70 countries including Seychelles.

In the spirit of providing key attention to the small island destination, the Seychelles stand was rightly located at the entrance of the destination’s pavilion where the STB team met with visitors to inform them about the destination.

The STB team tasked to increase the visibility of the destination in Belgium included Mrs. Bernadette Willemin, the STB Regional Director for Europe and Ms. Myra Fanchette, STB Marketing Executive from the STB France Office, who for four days actively provided information about the destination and its potentials. 

Centred around the theme ‘Sun & Sea’, the stand, which was illustrating vibrant scenes of the Island destination’s exotic beaches and lush mountains, did not miss dazzling the Belgian visitors attending the fair complementing the presentation efforts made by the team.

Her Excellency Ms. Beryl Shirley Samson, Seychelles Ambassador in Belgium, paid a visit to the Seychelles stand making the event 62nd edition of Salon des Vacances a special one.

The event allowed the STB team to perform STB’s mandate to increase the destination’s visibility and raise awareness about its offerings through the distribution of information to potential holidaymakers. 

One particular aspect of the fair, which complimented the STB’s interest in participating in the event, were the themes chosen for this year; one of which was eco-tourism which is a major focus in the Seychelles, especially with increased severity of climate change.

Seychelles is an active advocate for sustainability and conservation in the Indian Ocean, and promotes eco-tourism on its shores as part of its ambition for a sustainable future. The Salon des Vacances, in Belgium undeniably provided a platform to sensitise both exhibitors and visitors about the destination’s firm environmental stands while giving the STB an opportunity to educate a wider audience about the beautiful pristine environment.  

As part of their promotional activities, the STB team seized the opportunity to promote the destination as a multifaceted place through adventure activities such as water sports and hiking. In the recent years, the country has hosted several sporting events such as FINA and the Eco-Friendly Marathon, attracting participation from all corners of the globe. The STB has also launched the SNT Trail, calling nature lovers to hike some of the scenic routes of the tropical paradise.

“We wanted to showcase the diversity and variety of our products, and the fact that Seychelles has something to offer each traveller. We thus brought to the fore our attributes including our unique flora and fauna, world class diving and fishing, exceptional cruising within our archipelago, the Seychellois culture among others while ensuring that the visitors to our stand got to know about the wide range of hotel infrastructure available, catering for all tastes and budgets,” said Mrs Willemin.

She further added, “We were surprised to see a good number of the visitors coming to see us who had already travelled to our country and were satisfied with the experiences on the ground.  They were thus the perfect ambassador for the ones who were at our booth for information.”

The Fair features amongst eight travel shows, which the STB office in France has attended in numerous places around France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, since the beginning of 2020 to promote destination Seychelles.

MEDIA CONTACT: STB News Bureau, Tel: +248 4 671 354 / +248 4 671 313, [email protected]  www.seychelles.travel

Seychelles makes remarkable presence at Spain’s FITUR 2020

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The Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) started the year on a high note for the destination as it took to the city of Madrid in Spain for the five-day International Tourism Trade Fair, FITUR 2020.

A dynamic delegation composed of STB representatives and members of the trade represented the small island destination at Feria de Madrid from January 22, 2020 to January 26, 2020.

On the STB’s team was Regional Director for Europe; Mrs. Bernadette Willemin and Marketing Executive for Spain and Portugal market; Ms. Monica Gonzalez Llinas. The team worked in close collaboration with 7° South’s General Manager; Mrs. Anna Butler Payette, Mason’s Travel Sales Manager; Mr. Paul Lebon and Hotelier Cluster Sales Manager Ms. Serena Di Fiore on behalf of Hilton Seychelles.

A popular event for the Ibero-American countries, FITUR is a platform for tourism industry players across the globe to connect with the Spanish speakers.

The Seychelles delegation take advantage of a three-day event dedicated to meetings with travel trade professionals including specialised media to increase the visibility of the destination.

The event also comprised of two days focused on business-to-consumer meetings with the public, during which all partners had a chance to sell the destination and more exclusively their various services.

These consumer related meetings furthermore provided the STB representatives with the opportunity to divulge information about the destination to the audience present and entice them to experience the Seychelles whilst clarifying enquiries.

Speaking after the event, the STB Regional Director for Europe, Mrs. Bernadette Willemin stated that the Iberian market is one that fits well with STB’s marketing strategy, which is aiming having potential visitors with a higher purchasing.

She further mentioned that aside from increasing the visibility of the destination on the market, the fact that visitors from the region are known to be very jovial people and are good spenders contributed to the STB’s interest to be present at the fair.

“The current outlook for Spanish market in particular looks positive and should this trend continue, it will help in further developing our business together with the support of Seychelles trade partners, which will hopefully keep the growing the confidence of the Iberian travel operators and agents to continue selling the destination and increase the Iberian sales figures,” said Mrs Willemin.

The Seychelles stand also received a visit from The Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Port and Marine – Mr. Didier Dogley and the Principal Secretary Mrs. Anne Lafortune both present in the Spanish capital, attending UNTWO Events.

Upholding its reputation as a pioneer conservationist in the Indian Ocean region, Seychelles made itself visible at the UNTWO events during FITUR this year through the participation of the Non-Profit Organisation Seychelles Sustainable Tourism Foundation (SSTF) as its Founder Mrs. Daniella Alis-Payet presented sustainability initiatives and activities being implemented in Seychelles through the SSTF.

The FITUR Trade Fair is considered the leading fair for inbound and outbound Ibero-American markets. The Iberian Peninsula, a peninsula in south-western Europe occupied by Spain and Portugal, has been an increasing contributor to the Seychelles market.

In 2019, there was a 3% increase in visitors to Seychelles from the Iberian market, which is currently amongst the first 15th largest contributor of tourists to the island nation.

MEDIA CONTACT: STB News Bureau, Tel: +248 4 671 354 / +248 4 671 313, [email protected]  www.seychelles.travel