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Seychelles Tourism Board Strengthens Relationship with its Partners in Singapore

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Partners on the Singapore market met with the designated Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) representative for their region for a series of meetings earlier in December.

The sales call conducted by Mrs. Amia Jovanovic- Desir, the Director for India, Australia and for South Asia, is in line with the STB’s marketing strategy to increase the destination’s visibility through the training of partners.

Mrs. Jovanovic- Desir met with several tour operators on the market including representatives from Fuzzie Pte Ltd, Zipan Resort Travel Pte Ltd, Fascinating Holidays Pte Ltd, UOB Travel and Luxury Retreats and carried an extensive series of meetings and destination training sessions to better equip to sell Seychelles to their clients.

Speaking of her work mission in Singapore, the Director for India, Australia and South Asia mentioned that she is very happy to have had the opportunity to showcase Seychelles as the ultimate tourist destination everyone must encounter in a lifetime.

“This visit to the Singaporean partners is so we remain consistent with our strategic approach to continuously train our partnering agents and to keep Seychelles visible on the different markets, thus positioning it both in the mind of the consumers and trade,” said Mrs. Jovanovic- Desir.

To conclude the training sessions participants received Seychelles destination brochures, materials, which contain information about the 115- islands paradise and a special Seychelles local/branded gifts as a souvenir.

During her time in Singapore, the STB Director for India, Australia and South Asia had the opportunity to be introduced with Mr. Hanif Nomanbhoy, the newly appointed Honorary Consul of Seychelles in Singapore.

The meeting was the perfect occasion to initiate discussions on future joint collaboration between the STB and the office of the Honorary Consul in Singapore to increase destination awareness to both the tourism trade, consumers and media, about the uniqueness of Seychelles in Singapore.

Mrs. Amia Jovanovic- Desir also met with Ms. Alis Shehdek, the Senior Sales Executive of/ GSA for Srilankan Airlines LTD and Ms. Crystal Sim, the CEO of Albatross World Travel and Tours Pte, who was recently in Seychelles on an educational trip familiarization.

With the growing interest for unspoiled nature-based destination and the demand from the diverse market segments, Seychelles will slowly increase its market share from the Singaporean market, added Jovanovic-Desir.

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

Bahamas Tourism Director General Named Caribbean Tourism Director of The Year

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Director General Joy Jibrilu impresses leading tourism experts to win coveted Caribbean Travel Award

Expert stewardship and deft handling of the post Dorian climate in The Bahamas were just a few of the attributes that landed the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism Director General, Joy Jibrilu, the prestigious title of Caribbean Tourism Director of The Year, according to the Caribbean Travel Awards.

Director General of Tourism of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism & Aviation Mrs. Joy Jibrilu responded to the announcement of the award:

“I’m still processing the gravity of such a prestigious award. It is indeed both humbling, personally gratifying and a great way to end, what has been quite a year. This award is not just for myself; it’s the final result of a collaborative effort from an exceptional team. From the communications team to our sales team globally, meticulously working in tandem towards a clear and concise vision. Hurricane Dorian was perhaps the greatest challenge ever faced by our nation. Naturally, the destructiveness of Dorian attracted lots of international media attention. It was critical for us to quickly manage the narrative in the storm’s aftermath, to disseminate the accurate message about the effects of the storm on our destination, to ensure that the world understood that only two of our islands were affected by the storm and that the vast majority of our islands are unaffected and open for business.”

Launched in 2014, the Caribbean Travel Awards are the region’s premier celebration of the best of travel and tourism. Winners are selected by The Caribbean Journal’s editorial staff and network of contributors and based on year-round research and on-the-ground travel experiences and information.

“Joy Jibrilu has done an admirable job for The Bahamas in a year of immense highs and tragic lows, from a rapid tourism surge earlier in the year to calmly leading the destination through the tragedy of Hurricane Dorian — and quickly getting the message out about how and where to visit The Bahamas,” remarked Alexander Britell, Editor in Chief and Founder of The Caribbean Journal.

Mrs. Jibrilu was appointed Director General of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation in May 2014, where she has worked passionately to promote The Islands of The Bahamas. She began her government career in 2005 working as a consultant and later legal advisor for the Ministry of Finance. Jibrilu later served as the Director of Investments for The Bahamas Investment Authority, where she was responsible for the facilitation of all FDI projects and negotiated and worked on Heads of Agreements for major touristic developments, including the $3 billion dollar Baha Mar resort.

Prior to joining the public sector in The Bahamas, Mrs. Jibrilu, an attorney by profession, lived in West Africa and England where she worked in international education, serving as a Director of the Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA) for nine years. During this time, she traveled extensively throughout sub-Saharan Africa providing training in board governance and legal counsel on international contracts, institutional reform, dispute resolution, arbitration and conflict prevention.

“Being named Tourism Director of the Year by Caribbean Journal, a leading regional travel publication, is a very rewarding accolade that means so much to me, personally, and also to our destination. This award crowns a year that has seen us in The Bahamas rise to meet one of the greatest challenges dealt to our tourism economy,” remarked Director General Joy Jibrilu.

The Director General now joins the ranks of five others who have received this distinguished award since its inception. The official award presentation will be held at the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association Marketplace at Baha Mar, January 21 – 23, 2020.

About the Caribbean Travel Awards

The Caribbean Travel Awards, which were first launched in 2014, are the region’s premier celebration of the best of travel and tourism. Winners are selected by Caribbean Journal’s editorial staff based on year-round research and on-the-ground travel experiences and information.

Media Contact:

Rissie Demeritte
Sr. Manager Domestic Communications
[email protected]

Seychelles shines at Modetour Travel Mart 2019

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The Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) participated for the first time in the sixth Mode Tour Travel Mart exhibition from the September 5 to September 8, 2019, at COEX exhibition center, in Seoul South Korea. 

The four-day exhibition for the trade and consumers garnered the participation of 57 destinations, with 550 booths from 420 organizations and companies, including tourism boards, airlines and hotels.

Mrs. Amia Jovanovic Desir, the STB Director for India, South Korea, Australia and South East Asia and Mrs. Judy Yun, Account manager of the STB Office in South Korea represented Seychelles at the exhibition.

The STB Director mentioned that the STB’s presence at the South Korean trade event follows the warm welcome received in the country as the STB team conducted a sales visit in June this year.

Team Seychelles had a prime marketing opportunity to market the destination to South Korean trade partners on the first event day, which was Business-to-Business event. 

As part of its strong strategic approach to further encourage selling the destination at the event, the STB team launched the sales contest; an initiative to reward the top three agents who have sold the most packages between October 1, 2019 and January 31, 2020 with an opportunity to conduct an educational familiarization trip to Seychelles.

The concept was received successfully as numerous partners and travel professionals who visited the STB stand showed strong interest to join the contest.

 The South Korean agents present at the exhibition also received a copy of the list of the Destination Management Companies, (DMCs) in Seychelles.

The last three days of the fair were dedicated for individual consumers. Reiterating the success encountered on the first day with the trade partners, the STB team witnessed with pleasure positive response on the consumer Spinning Roulette Event initiative organized at the STB stand to catch the attention of visitors.

 The fun based initiative require for each participant to say the word “Seychelles” out loud and spinning the roulette to receive a branded item from STB including a water bottle or sports towels.

As members of the public waited to spin the roulette, they had the chance to view Seychelles destination videos as well as the different promotional materials, which the team distributed to them.

Speaking about the success of the three consumer days, Mrs. Jovanovic Desir mentioned that the STB stand received over 1500 visitors including families, couples and children, who enjoyed the roulette and at the same time got the chance to learn about Seychelles.

“We had an opportunity to engage visitors planning to visit and explore our islands on their next holiday, they had the opportunity to seek additional information and queried of how to best to organize their visit. It is essential to add that there is a broad range and balance of segmented interest, apart from the usual thinking that Seychelles is only a honeymoon destination for the South Koreans,” said the STB Director at the event.

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

Christophe Berger Named Director of Conventions Malta

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Christophe Berger, newly appointed Director of Conventions Malta, brings with him extensive experience in the Hospitality and M.I.C.E. market sectors. As Malta’s tourism has been on a tremendous growth path, especially from the North American market, it is also gaining considerable momentum as a popular M.I.C.E. market destination.

According to Berger, “Malta’s tourism industry has enjoyed great success in recent years, and Malta is now striving to boost this success even further by expanding the international appeal of its incomparable M.I.C.E. product, with spectacular settings at competitive prices.”

Malta, with its 7000 years of history and steeped in historic event venues, is a M.I.C.E. planner’s paradise. This Mediterranean archipelago offers a diverse number of magnificent castles, palazzos and forts to choose from. Other unique settings include theme parks, village squares, luxury yachts and exclusive sea-front facilities.
Malta’s multitude of conference hotels or venues can accommodate any size event. This includes the iconic 16th century building, once considered the most advanced hospital in Europe, which is now the state-of-the-art Mediterranean Conference Center.

Berger noted that what adds to the “wow” factor for the M.I.C.E market, and tourism in general, is that “Malta has become one of Europe’s most popular film and television locations – dubbed the Mediterranean’s mini-Hollywood by the London Times.” Malta, where Game of Thrones all began, is also home to many blockbuster film locations including Troy, Gladiator, World War Z, Assassin’s Creed, The Count of Monte Cristo and Murder on the Orient Express.

Born in France, Berger moved to Malta 20 years ago, where he has been working in various sectors of the hospitality and tourism industry. His professional background stems from hotel management and in Malta has held positions at the Grand Hotel Mercure Selmun Palace and at Intercontinental Malta as part of the M.I.C.E team, with responsibilities for overseas marketing the hotel and Malta as a destination. Berger also furthered his M.I.C.E experience while specializing in M.I.C.E. on behalf of a Maltese Destination Management Company (DMC).

Berger, together with Michelle Buttigieg, Malta Tourism Authority Representative in North America, will be heading a public/private sector M.I.C.E. delegation from Malta to IMEX Las Vegas September 9-12, 2019.

For more information about planning Meetings and Incentive events in Malta visit www.conventionsmalta.com

About Malta

The sunny islands of Malta, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, are home to a most remarkable concentration of intact built heritage, including the highest density of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in any nation-state anywhere.  Valletta built by the proud Knights of St. John is one of the UNESCO sites and was the European Capital of Culture for 2018. Malta’s patrimony in stone ranges from the oldest free-standing stone architecture in the world, to one of the British Empire’s most formidable defensive systems, and includes a rich mix of domestic, religious and military architecture from the ancient, medieval and early modern periods. With superbly sunny weather, attractive beaches, a thriving nightlife and 7,000 years of intriguing history, there is a great deal to see and do. www.visitmalta.com

For Further Information and Photography

Malta Tourism Authority:

Michelle Buttigieg

Tel: (212) 213-0944

Fax: (212) 213-0938

E-mail: [email protected]

MTA US Editorial Contact:

The Bradford Group

Karen Hoffman/ Bianca Pappas

Tel: (212) 447-0027

Fax: (212) 725 8253

E-mail: [email protected]

SITA: Tracking airline passenger bags drives 66% improvement in baggage delivery

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Airlines that are adding tracking at more points of the baggage journey are enjoying a huge improvement in bag delivery globally. The SITA 2019 Baggage IT Insights – officially launched at an event in Abu Dhabi International Airport today – shows that where tracking is done at check-in and loading onto the aircraft, the rate of improvement is as high as 66%.

These results come as the record drop in the baggage mishandling rate achieved globally over the past decade plateaus, with the rate steady at around 5.7 bags per thousand passengers over the past three years. In 2018, the rate was 5.69 per thousand passengers.

Over the past year, an increasing number of airlines and airports have started to introduce tracking at key points in the journey – check-in, loading onto the aircraft, transfers and arrival – to improve baggage management and further reduce the chances of a bag being mishandled. SITA’s research provides the first glimpse of the success of this tracking. It reveals that where bags were being tracked when loaded onto the aircraft, the rate of improvement ranged between 38% and 66% depending on the level of tracking introduced.

Peter Drummond, Director of Baggage at SITA, said: “While the mishandling rate has started to plateau over the past few years, this comes against a continued growth in passenger numbers and their bags. In 2018, 4.36 billion travelers checked in more than 4.27 billion bags. More bags makes things more challenging. Everyone across the industry needs to look beyond the process and technology improvements made in the past decade and adopt the latest technology such as tracking to make the next big cut in the rate of mishandled bags.”

Ahmed Juma Al Shamsi, Acting Chief Operations Officer at Abu Dhabi Airports, said: “For our passengers the timely delivery of baggage is key to ensuring a seamless passenger experience and therefore an area in which we continue to make further improvements. Looking forward, baggage tracking is fundamental to driving more accurate bag delivery not only at Abu Dhabi International Airport but across the entire passenger journey. We have led the way with the introduction of tracking on arrival and we have already seen significant improvements.”

Transferring baggage from one aircraft, or airline, to another remains a pinch point in the journey and in 2018 it was again the main reason for bags being mishandled. Transfer bags accounted for 46% of all mishandled bags.
Drummond added: “Transfer is by far the most difficult stage to track a bag as there are multiple airlines and airports involved. However, data from this year’s report shows that tracking at key points in the journey, such as transfers, will go a long way to eliminating mishandling and will allow airlines and their passengers to keep tabs on where their bags are at every step of the way.”

Over the past decade, total number of mishandled bags per annum has plummeted 47% from 46.9 million in 2007 to 24.8 million in 2018, while the annual bill footed by the industry has shrunk 43% to $2.4 billion, down from $4.22 billion in 2007.

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