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Seychelles receives honor of hosting FINA CNSG Open Water World Series 2019

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The excitement was palpable at Beau Vallon Beach on Saturday, April 13, 2019, almost a month before the Seychelles hosts for the second consecutive year the FINA CNSG Open Water World Series 2019.

This year’s event is being held in collaboration with Chinese based company CNSG and Seychelles is once again the second leg in the series of eight.

The organizing committee’s partners including the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB), officials and local swimmers gathered at Beau Vallon Beach where a trial run was organized to test out the facilities, the technical requirements and of course, the local swimming talents.

Principal Secretary for Sports, Fabien Palmyre present at the trial run mentioned his satisfaction to see that the FINA CNSG Open Water World Series 2019 is materializing with the support of all local partners.

“I am excited to again, be part of such an event. I am proud of all our young swimmers who have made an effort to be present today. I am grateful to all the partners and volunteers and I am definitely looking forward to this year’s event,” said PS Palmyre.

15 swimmers competed in the Beau Vallon waters in three main races, 2.5 km, 5 km and 7.5 km. According to the Seychelles Swimming Association (SSA) officials, the reasoning behind the distances selected is to enable the swimmers to test out their abilities to see which category would suit them best for the May 11, 2019 event, which will be opened for the public and other swimming enthusiasts.

The 2019 Mass Open Water event will take place on Saturday May 11, one day prior to the Elite event.

The May 11 Mass event will comprise of four distances, Group A (500 m), Group B (1 km), Group C (3 km) and Group D (5 km). The only age restriction will be for Group A where students aged 13 years and under can participate. The others will be open to all ages and there will be two races, a male and a female race for each distance.

“Mass participation is crucial in making the Mass event a success and the Seychelles Swimming Association is calling on all swimmers to register for the event,” said David Vidot, SSA Chairperson.

Mr. Vidot indicated that the forms for registration are available on the SSA Facebook page and website. The deadline to return the registration form to the Swimming Association is May 1, 2019.

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The Seychelles is honored this year to have four Seychellois swimmers qualified to take part in the Elite 10 km race, which will take place on Sunday May 12, 2019.

Joining the 2018 swimmers, brothers Bertrand and Damien Payet, will be Matthew Bachmann and Alain Vidot, both of whom completed the 7.5 km race finishing second and third consecutively behind Damien who crossed the finishing line on Saturday first.

The Elite event which is broadcast to a global audience via the FINA network, exposes Seychelles in another light, similar to that of the annual Eco-Marathon event, which strengthens Seychelles’ potential as a Sports Tourism destination.

“It is such a privilege to be hosting the event again on our shores; as announced earlier this year, STB is committed to promote Seychelles as an ideal sports destination. Our collaboration with Seychelles Swimming Association and other partners for FINA CNSG Open Water World Series 2019 is an ideal platform for us to showcase our beautiful destination and its pristine waters,” said Mrs. Sherin Francis, Seychelles Tourism Board Chief Executive.

In May 2018, open water swimming made its debut in Seychelles, as the small island nation became the second host in the FINA World Cup Series 2018. The iconic Beau Vallon beach was the chosen venue to launch Seychelles in the open water swimming world, making it the first country in Africa to host an event of this caliber.

As part of the FINA mandate, the host country is required to host a mass event alongside the elite 10k m event, in order to encourage and mobilize the local community to appreciate and take part in the sport.

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India stakeholders focus on sustainable development of Heritage Tourism

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PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) organized the 8th India Heritage Tourism Conclave with the theme “Sustainable Tourism Management at World Heritage Sites” on March 27, 2019 at WelcomHotel The Savoy, Mussoorie. The program was supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.

Inaugurating the Conclave, Dr. Sanjeev Chopra (IAS), Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, said: “A country as diverse as India is symbolized by the plurality of its culture and heritage. Heritage tourism in India is a real treasure as there are numerous cultural, historical and natural resources. There are immense possibilities of heritage tourism in India. This type of event can prove to be a milestone for increasing the tourism business of the country.”

H.E. Chung Kwang Tien, Ambassador, Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India; H.E. Fleming Duarte, Ambassador, Embassy of Paraguay; H.E. Dato Hidayat Abdul Hamid, High Commissioner, High Commission of Malaysia; H.E. Eleonora Dimitrova, Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria; and H.E. Jagdishwar Goburdhun, High Commissioner-Designate, Mauritius High Commission were also present at the program and shared the heritage tourism potential of their respective countries.

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and its Knowledge Partner- Auctus Advisors have jointly released a Knowledge Report ‘Sustainable Heritage Tourism in India’. The report gives a holistic view on heritage tourism across the world and in the country. The report says that while growth in Indian tourism needs to be aggressively taken up, the sustainability dimension of tourism also needs to be viewed with equal importance.

Radha Bhatia, Chairperson – Tourism Committee, PHDCCI, said that the ancient past of India has ensured that the present and subsequent generations have abundant of historical and cultural inheritance to be proud of. “The restoration efforts to safeguard valuable heritage assets at government’s end in association with various agencies and organizations are visible at places of historic significance but there are so many places which still stand apart and require immediate attention. Preserving India’s cultural heritage for the enrichment and education of present and future generations is crucial,” she said.

Kishore Kumar Kaya, Co-Chairman – Tourism Committee, PHDCCI welcomed all the dignitaries and expressed his desire to host more such programmes in future at WelcomHotel The Savoy, Mussoorie.

Ruskin Bond, Leading Indian Author; Bill Aitken, Travel Writer and Dinraj Pratap Singh, Owner, Kasmanda Palace were felicitated during the program.

While setting the theme of the Conclave, Rajan Sehgal, Co-Chairman – Tourism Committee, PHDCCI, said, “India’s World Heritage Tourism Sites have an added advantage for attracting international tourists. Nearly 85% of all visitors to India visit one or the other heritage sites of the country in their course of the vacation. Tourism in India has shown a phenomenal growth in the past decade and is expected to emerge as the most important revenue earner for India in the years to come.”

Panel Discussion on ‘Creating a Sustainable Ecosystem for promotion of Heritage Tourism’ had Vinod Zutshi (IAS Retd.), Former Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India as the moderator and witnessed Bhavna Saxena (IPS), Special Commissioner, Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board; Pronab Sarkar, President, Indian Association of Tour Operators; Dr. Lokesh Ohri, Convenor – Dehradun Chapter, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage; Anil Bhandari, Chairman, A B Smart Concepts; Ganesh Saili, Indian Author; Kulmeet Makkar, CEO, Producers Guild of India; Virendra Kalra, Chairman – Uttarakhand Chapter, PHDCCI; Sandeep Sahni, President, Hotels & Restaurants Association of Uttarakhand; Sumit Kumar Agarwal, Secretary General, Tribal India Chamber of Trade Agriculture and Commerce; and Manish Chheda, Managing Director, Auctus Advisors.

Heritage tourism in India with 37 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and numerous other natural sites has immense potential that need repeat visits to cover all of them. The challenges are very demanding keeping in mind conservation and environmental protection. ‘Adopt a Heritage Scheme’ by Ministry of Tourism and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is one of the best practices to showcase our monuments and drive sustainable growth.

The panelists highlighted that the need of the hour is to have a clear vision and a well-defined execution plan with the goal of sustainable development that provides conservation and growth, clean air, water, energy and heritage at large. Technology, documentation, capacity building and regulation are the way to go for sustainable development of heritage tourism.

A Heritage Walk was also organized during the program for all the delegates to enjoy the heritage of Mussoorie not only as past, but as a living tradition.

Yogesh Srivastav, Principal Director, PHDCCI, said that PHDCCI is committed to create such meaningful platforms to do its bit in enabling all the parameters of the tourism industry to grow and flourish further. The Conclave was attended by over 150 delegates.

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Tourism Clubs launched for primary and secondary students 

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Students of primary and secondary schools around Mahé, Praslin and La Digue can now be part and parcel of the booming tourism industry as the Ministry for Tourism and its partner the Seychelles Hospitality and Tourism Association launch the Tourism Clubs for Seychellois students.

The initiative launched on Friday March 22, 2019 at the AVANI Seychelles Barbarons Resort and Spa on Mahé is the result of a long preparation germinating from discussions held during the Tourism Festival organized by the Tourism Department last year.

The aim of the project is to educate students about the tourism industry and trigger their interest for a career in hospitality and tourism.

The launch was conducted by the Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine, Mr.  Didier Dogley and Mrs. Jeanne Simeon, Minister for Education and Human Resource Development.

The ceremony also saw the presence of Mrs. Anne Lafortune, Principal Secretary for Tourism, Principal Secretary for Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Education, Dr Odile de Commarmond, and Seychelles Hospitality and Tourism Association Chairperson, Mrs. Sybille Cardon alongside Martin Kennedy.

In his opening statements, Martin Kennedy who presided the event’s proceedings mentioned that all the respective ministries, stakeholders and educators equally have a role in helping the young Seychellois to imagine themselves as a major successful partner in the tourism industry.

Speaking at the launch the Minister for Education and Human Resource Development, Mrs. Jeanne Simeon commended the stakeholders of the Tourism sector for their active commitment in providing an extra-curricular activity that would not only benefit the development of students but also impact on their life choices.

“As a country we should not underestimate the importance of the Tourism Industry as the major pillar of our economy and it is of utmost importance that this is transmitted to our children from primary. Tourism should be seen as a sector that helps builds our country’s brand and value,” said Minister Simeon.

Minister Dogley supported the statement as he addressed the gathering emphasizing that it is his pride that Seychellois manage more than 60 percent of the small hotel establishments.

“I thank all the partners, especially ministry for Education and Human Resource Development, the private sector and club coordinators as we all work towards building the next generation of hoteliers and educating them about the importance of keeping our local tourism industry’s standard high in order to maintain our reputation as a destination,” said Minister Dogley.

Mrs. Sybille Cardon, also present, expressed her satisfaction to see the project concretize. She mentioned that with the implementation of the tourism clubs, the industry is hoping to see a very positive response.

With the tag line “We are Tourism,” the call for our responsibility as Seychellois is once again called upon to raise the profile of our Destination and the standard of our Tourism industry.

The event concluded with presentations made from students from Mont-Fleuri Primary School and Beau-Vallon Secondary School.

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Young elephant shot 13 times: Tourists watched in horror

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Balule Associated Nature Reserve has justified the killing of a young elephant bull in front of tourists as an ‘act of self-defense’, backtracking on an original announcement condemning the act and ignoring eye-witness accounts.

Balule Nature Reserve is a protected area in Limpopo Province, South Africa which forms part of the Greater Kruger National Park as a member of the Associated Private Nature Reserve

The young elephant bull was shot 13 times in front of four eye-witnesses standing on a viewing deck overlooking Balule’s Maseke Game Reserve, where the hunt took place.

Balule’s Hunting Incident Report states that “the elephant charged [the hunting party] and they shot it when it was five meters from them.”

However, the hunters were never in any danger, says Annelize Slabbert, one of the four onlookers who witnessed the shooting.

She says guests at the lodge saw the whole incident from their unobstructed vantage point.

Her husband, Gerard, affirms this. “After the first shot, I saw the three men standing by their vehicle in the road; the elephant was 80 to 100 meters away from them and starting running in the opposite direction.”

The Slabberts also say the elephant never charged the hunting party. According to Annelize, “it was calmly feeding on a tree when the first shot rang out. The elephant then gave a loud cry and ran for cover in the thicket, with the hunters running in pursuit, firing more shots. Thirteen shots later, after the elephant had fallen in a ditch in an attempt to escape the hunters, its shrieks ceased.”

Later, a TLB, tractor and trailer had to be called in to retrieve the carcass from the deep ditch, the hunting report confirms.

“It is something I will, unfortunately, never forget,” Annelize says. “It was heartbreaking.”

Balule management has vehemently rejected any claims of alcohol use, but the final report states that one member of the hunting party, Sean Nielsen did, in fact, ‘mess his whiskey’ on one of the witnesses who had approached the hunting party after the incident. The report reads that “a heated exchange took place between the witness and Mr Nielson.”

Photographs taken on the scene show Nielsen, the long-term lessee of Maseke Game Reserve, with a glass of tawny liquid in hand. He reportedly acted as the reserve representative on the hunt.

Photo by witness
A witness took this photo

The photographs, Balule chairperson Sharon Haussmann argues, were taken after the shooting and are, therefore, not indicative of a breach of any ethical or general hunting protocols.

Change of tune

When the incident occurred on 23 November last year, Haussmann initiated a full investigation and said that the parties involved would be held accountable. She labelled the incident as “completely unethical and inconsiderate and a huge embarrassment for Balule.” She said “it did not comply with the sustainable utilization model of ethical hunting in accordance with the hunting protocol that governs all reserves within APNR and to which Balule and hence Maseke are bound.”

The full investigation report was shared in full in Febraury this year. The outcome painted an entirely different picture.

Haussmann backtracked on her initial statement and said that “according to the APNR protocol there were no ethical transgressions.

“We don’t approve that it happened in front of a lodge, but unfortunately, the lay of the land was such that it was in view of a lodge,” Haussmann said in January. The full investigation concludes that “besides poor site selection, there is no evidence of ethical breaches that can be actioned by us.”

When asked about the contradicting statements between Balule’s final report and the witness reports sent in as part of the investigation, Haussmann said it was a case of ‘he said, she said’.

“I wasn’t there. I wish I was; then I could tell you for sure [what happened],” she said. The report simply concludes that there’s no reason to doubt the “version put forward by the ‘hunting party’”.

Hunting continues

Kruger National Park’s managing executive Glenn Phillips also previously condemned the hunt and said SANParks was “keenly awaiting the finalisation of the [Balule] investigation”. When questioned on the outcome of the investigation, no further comment was received.

The increasing number of questionable hunting incidents occurring in the Kruger’s adjoining reserves underscores the growing conflict between hunting and photographic safaris operating on the same land in the Assosiated Private Nature Reserves (APNRs).

While this conflict ensues in meetings regarding protocol and ethics, poaching in the park is on the rise and Kruger’s elephants are caught in a dangerous gap between licensed and unlicensed killers.

Kruger recently launched a campaign aimed at fighting elephant poaching in the park’s northern region, however, Balule was given approval by the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) to hunt 22 elephants during the 2019/2020 hunting season, which begins on 1 April. This amounts to nearly half of the 47 elephants permitted to be hunted in all the APNRs this season.

In the previous year, a total of 53 elephants were legally hunted in the APNR, while 71 elephants were poached in the Kruger Park

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Seychelles to host FINA World Junior Open Water Championship in 2020

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Seychelles will next year host the FINA World Junior Open Water Championship 2020, making it the first African country and small island nation to organize this event. Additionally, following the resounding triumph of the first-ever FINA/Hosa Marathon Swim World Series held on our beautiful shores in 2018, Seychelles will once again host the second leg of the prestigious swimming competition in May this year.

These official announcements were made during a press conference held on January 17, 2019, at the Savoy Resort and Spa in the presence of Mr. Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, the Minister for Finance, Trade, Investment, and Economic Planning, Principal Secretary for Youth and Sports Mr. Fabian Palmyre.

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The press conference hosted by the chairperson of the Seychelles Swimming Association (SSA), Mr. David Vidot, also saw the participation of the two core governmental partners in the presence of Mrs. Sherin Francis the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) Chief Executive and Mr. Jean Larue, Chief Executive of the National Sports Council (NSC).

The FINA World Junior Open Water Championship is an international swimming competition that brings together boys and girls between the age of 14 and 19, to race at the highest level.

“This is another historical moment for Seychelles as we are pioneering open water not only in Seychelles but also in the African continent,” said Mr. Vidot.

During her intervention STB Chief Executive Mrs. Francis commented that as a faithful partner of the open water competitions, STB will give its support to the event, adding that such sports competitions provide a great boost to the tourism industry.

“Such big events are broadcasted by major television channels and this is a way for people to indirectly discover the destination for the first time. We have noticed in the past that having international press cover such events has allowed us to receive more leverage and visibility as a small country with little resources,” said Mrs. Francis.
She added that all stakeholders in the tourism industry stand to benefit from such an event.

Commenting on the financial commitment of the event, the Minister for Finance, Trade, Investment, and Economic Planning stated that the government of Seychelles is giving its full support for the hosting of the event. He also took the opportunity to invite local businesses to join the initiative as sponsors and partners.

“It is important that Seychelles hosts such events to make sure that it remains relevant on the international scene as a country that is serious and engaged in sport. Sport brings about peace and most of all it develops the youth and places them on the right track in life,” said Mr. Loustau-Lalanne.

Mr. Loustau-Lalanne also added that the exact costing for the event has not been established yet, but that for the moment an estimation of about five to six million Seychelles rupees has been made for the event.

Mr. Vidot mentioned that ongoing discussions are still being held with FINA to establish the exact date that the junior championship will take place. He explained that the junior championship might be hosted during the week that follows the final race of the FINA/Hosa Marathon Swim World Series’ second leg. There will be three age groups and three distances – 3km, 5km, and 7.5km – under which participants will be able to compete.

The FINA/Hosa Marathon Swim World Series, which is anticipated for May 11 and May 12 this year, will be the second event of a four-year agreement with FINA for the international swimming event.

“At the moment, we are hoping to host it back to back with the world cup series as both events will be hosted at Beau Vallon. This will allow us to make the most out of our resources,” said Mr. Vidot.

In 2018, the first Seychelles edition of the FINA/Hosa Marathon Swim World Series was won by an Italians duo Arianna Bridi and Simone Ruffini who came out as the winners of the women’s and men’s race, respectively; leaving around 50 other world class swimmers from around the world envious of winning in the pristine waters.