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Seychelles charms featured at South Korea’s Hana Tour International Travel Show 2019 (HITS)

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Korean travelers and partners had a glimpse of the beauty of the destination as Seychelles featured at the 13th Hana Tour International Travel Show from June 7, 2019 to June 9, 2019 at KINTEX exhibition center, Goyang City in South Korea.

The three-day exhibition gathered the participation of over 700 organizations and companies, including tourism boards, airlines, and hotels.


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Seychelles, represented by its marketing body the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) was lodged within an 18sqm stand with the destination brand image design focusing the beach the granite feature, which commanded the attention of many visitors to the stand.

The Seychelles delegation included Mrs. Amia Jovanovic-Desir, the Director for India, South Korea, Australia and South East Asia, Mrs. Judy Yun, newly appointed representative for the Seychelles on the South Korean market, Mr. Jean-Francois Figaro, Senior Officer – Strategic Planning & Market Intelligence and Ms. Jill Freminot- E-Marketing Executive.

Aside from meeting with the Seychelles team to discuss about the destination and its features, an assortment of events were organized at the stand to retain visitors’ interest. 

The activities included the spinning Roulette through which each participant had to mention the word Seychelles as many times as indicated in order to receive a branded water bottle. The spinning Roulette saw the participation of over 600 hundred visitors, which were a combination of families, couples and children.

Visitors were also invited to take a photograph at our stand with the Seychellois staff and the iconic Coco-de-Mer, the heaviest and largest nut in the world. Visitors then were invited to upload the photo on their social media page with the hashtags #Seychelles #HITS.

The highlight of the STB’s participation at the HANA 2019 remains the lucky draw, which saw the signing up of more than 5,000 visitors, all wishing to be the lucky winner of a return trip to Seychelles for two persons.

During the 3 days, the various visitors- including individual visitors -FIT, potential honeymooners, as well as retirees showed their extensive interest in Seychelles as a holiday destination. 

As part of its participation at the HANA 2019, the STB conducted a rigorous study on the Korean market.  The exercise was successfully conducted by STB the Senior Officer – Strategic Planning & Market Intelligence, Mr. Jean-Francois Figaro whose main objective was to facilitate the Consumer Insight Survey designed for this exhibition.

The aim of the study was to generate important insight into South Korea as a source market for the Seychelles and better understand the needs and desires of South Korean travelers.

Speaking about the collection of figure at the HANA 2019, the STB Director for India, South Korea, Australia and South East Asia, mentioned that it is essential for the tourism Board to have a better understanding of the challenges faced by the STB office in Korea and Korean Tour Operators in their attempt to successfully promote and sell the destination.

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To achieve these objectives Mr. Figaro together with other members of the Seychelles team gathered responses from more than 275 participants over the three-day period through the administration of survey questionnaires.

The STB’s presence at the HANA 2019 caught the attention of numerous Korean Media representatives and STB Director for the market, Mrs. Jovanovic–Desir offered several media interviews to share the latest information and further promote the destination.

‘’Most of the tour operators and agents that we have met are focusing on the honeymooner’s segment and visitors who visited our stand believe that Seychelles is only for the high-end clients. I have thus informed them that Seychelles is a destination, which cater for demand from a broad range of income brackets.  We will continuously identify the appropriate marketing strategies and tools in order to increase the Seychelles’ image in South Korea, with the aim of changing this negative mind-set of the consumers,” said Mrs. Jovanovic-Desir.

“Seychelles is known as a dream and paradise holiday destination that people wish to visit once in their lifetime. This fair definitely allows increase Seychelles visibility and people’s awareness towards destination,” added Mrs. Yun.

While in South Korea, Mrs. Jovanovic-Desir together and Mr. Figaro guided by Mrs. Yun met with some key players and trade partners in Seoul in a series of sales calls organized ahead of time. These included visits to tour Operating Company including Honeymoon Resort, Mode Tour, Vanilla Island and Dream TNE.

MEDIA CONTACT: STB News Bureau, Tel: +248 4 671 354 / +248 4 671 313, stbnews@seychelles.travel  www.seychelles.travel

Seychelles efforts for a sustainable destination in the forefront

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The destination joins the rest of the world to celebrate world environment day, a time us to reflect on sustainable tourism and how Seychelles as a destination is actively advocating for natural conservation.

As Seychelles took home the award for the Indian Ocean’s Leading Sustainable Tourism Destination 2019 at the 26th Edition of the World Travel Awards (WTA) held at the Sugar Beach- A Sun Resort in Mauritius on Saturday June 1, 2019.

Seychelles is one of those countries on the planet that is most reliant on tourism and fully realise the need to behave in such a way that its many resources are not squandered over the short term, but rather, used wisely so that they remain available for future generations of Seychellois.

At the forefront of keeping Seychelles sustainable is our very own Ministry of the Environment and its plans for waste management with the specific aim of reducing the amount of waste going into the landfill, which produces unwanted greenhouse gases, consumes scarce land and releases dangerous leachate into the environment.

The initiative towards developing a recycling system for PET and aluminium cans which started in 2008 is still ongoing and being sustained by importation and environmental levies. A glass bottle recycling system is also being implemented and has taken effect during 2018.

Additional restrictions are also being applied to the manufacture, trade and distribution of domestically produced and imported plastic bags of under 30 micrometres thickness.

 In 2017, the Ministry of Environment banned the use of manufacturing and sale of plastic, Styrofoam boxes and plastic utensils, rather promoting the use of paper boxes, reusable bags and other biodegradable substitutes. The government is working on setting up a waste-sorting centre to sort different types of waste for exportation.

Most recently, Plastic straw importation has been banned as of Friday, 1 February 2019. The sale, use, manufacturing, and processing of plastic straws ban has been reinforced as of 1 June 2019.

In order to benefit from the latest research, the Seychelles Ministry of Environment has been collaborating with different universities and also the World Bank and European Union to gather information about waste management in Seychelles and the development of a sustainable, 10-year waste management plan, which includes a waste-characterisation study and students’ exchange programme.

The ministry is also behind a composting programme where green waste will go to the landfill and also an education and awareness programme about effective waste management and waste sorting.

Meanwhile, the Seychelles Blue Bond Project which was presented at the recent Economist World Ocean Summit in Bali and which has already been awarded with the 2017 Ocean Innovation Challenge. It involves the government issuing a blue bond valued at $15 million over 10 years with guarantees from the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility to support the transition to sustainable fisheries.

The need for sustainability also underpins Seychelles’ exploration of the ocean for biotechnology as well as its research into alternative forms of energy such as that provided by, for example, wave power or solar farms, to lessen the load on imported and increasingly expensive forms of power production.

However, sustainability’s lowest common denominator remains the manner in which we each make a concerted effort to lessen our footprint on the planet and to consume its resources in ways that will make them available to future generations of Seychellois and tourists alike. It is when, as individuals, we truly begin to change our habits to take into consideration the broader, long term, needs of our environment and communities that we most favourably affect our prospects of success.

“As we commemorated World Environment Day on June 5, and looking at celebrating World Ocean Day on June 8, it is important we remember that our immaculate environment is the reason Seychelles is considered one of the best destination around the world. It is great to see that our government alongside the NGOs and the public remain focus on ecological measures. Our legacy to the younger generations has to be at the level of what our forefathers left for us,” said Mrs. Francis.

Article written with the collaboration of Glynn Burridge / TOURISM CONSULTANT / COPYWRITER, SEYCHELLES TOURISM BOARD

MEDIA CONTACT: STB News Bureau, Tel: +248 4 671 354 / +248 4 671 313, stbnews@seychelles.travel  www.seychelles.travel

Seychelles to celebrate 250th anniversary of the first settlement in 2020

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As announced by President Danny Faure in August 2018, the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the first settlement of Seychelles is to be held in August 2020.

A national preparatory committee chaired by Seychelles Tourism Board Chief Executive, Sherin Francis was thereafter set-up to spearhead the planning and organisation of the events.

The committee, which consists of the eight other members namely Jeannine Chung Faye, Emanuel D’Offay, Sybille Cardon, Oliver Bastienne, Tony Mathiot, David Andre, Cindy Vidot and Alvin Laurence, has been meeting on a regular basis to present an extensive one-year plan to commemorate this important milestone in the history of Seychelles.

Following the endorsement by cabinet on May 30, 2019 of the proposed plan to celebrate 250th anniversary of the first settlement in 2020, the 250 years national preparatory committee organised a press meeting to address the Seychelles press partners for the first time and unveil the logo of this historic event.

During the press conference held at the National History museum in the Settlement section on Friday June 7, 2019, that the committee also presented a brief overview of the calendar of activities over the 1-year celebration period, during which all Seychellois will be taken back through a historical journey of discovery about the Seychelles.

A series of planned activities for the 2020 celebrations will be launched on August 27, 2019; the activities scheduled will involve various events in districts and at national level.

“The celebration is not merely commemorating the anniversary of the first settlement, but it is also celebrating the birth of Seychelles – 250 years of Seychelles. As proud Seychellois, it is our duty to make sure that we celebrate this achievement as it should be,” said Mrs. Francis.

The committee chairperson also stated that a secretariat office will be set-up and that will be based at the Seychelles Tourism Board Headquarters in Mont- Fleuri, she encourages all Seychellois who would want to contribute their valuable ideas or make a contribution of their time towards the project to contact the secretariat on the following email info@250yearsseychelles.event.

Mrs. Francis also mentioned that throughout celebration period, the Seychelles tourism marketing strategy would carry the 250th anniversary brand to entice visitors to also take part in these historical events.

MEDIA CONTACT: STB News Bureau, Tel: +248 4 671 354 / +248 4 671 313, stbnews@seychelles.travel  www.seychelles.travel

Seychelles history retraced through gastronomy as Hilton Seychelles welcomes top London chefs for “A Treasure Trail of Taste” 

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Announced in May by Hilton Seychelles the series of gastronomic events inspired by the famous 17th century pirate, Olivier Levasseur, dubbed ‘A Treasure Trail of Taste’ will be launched as brothers Luke, Theodore and Nathaniel Selby – London’s newest chefs will disembark in Seychelles on Wednesday June 5, 2019.

The project initiated by Hilton Seychelles includes an exclusive list of international chefs chosen to retrace the Levasseur’s sailing routes across Britain, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean.

Over the coming months, the Hilton Hotels in Seychelles namely Northolme Resort & Spa and Hilton Seychelles Labriz Resort & Spa, will host a succession of culinary experiences.

During their time in Seychelles, London-based chefs Luke, Theodore and Nathaniel Selby, will be charming the Hilton guests- visitors and locals alike and delight their taste buds as they will offer five exceptional gourmet evenings on both Silhouette Island and Mahé.

Speaking of the Hilton initiative, Seychelles Tourism Board Chief Executive, Mrs. Sherin Francis mentions the destination’s honour to be part of the project.

Mrs. Francis further stated that the project reverberates with the destination’s commitment to add value to our visitor’s experience by mixing two important components of its marketing mix- the Seychelles rich history through cultural heritage and its cuisine.

“At the eve of the 250 years celebrations of the Settlement of Seychelles, what better way to celebrate than going back to the history of our country. It is mostly inspiring to have three young and prominent chefs visiting the Seychelles and bringing their savoir-faire to our aspiring Seychellois Chefs. We hope for them to leave Seychelles with a memorable souvenir of their stay that will bring sunshine to the dishes they will be creating after this experience with us,” said Mrs. Francis.

As part of their valuable contribution to the industry, Hilton Seychelles is collaborating alongside the Seychelles Tourism Academy (STA) to ensure the younger resident talent benefit from having Award-winning global chefs on the island. A selected group from the academy will be shadowing the three brothers over the June dates, with one of the top students being chosen to work side by side to Luke Selby in the kitchen, to help prepare the final dinner at Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort & Spa on June 19, 2019.

For their part, the Hilton Seychelles said that they want to offer the best experience to their guests and residents of Seychelles. Judith Heede, Cluster PR & Social Media Consultant from Hilton Seychelles said “This kicks off the ‘A Treasure Trail of Taste’ project. Hilton Seychelles prides itself in the importance of being innovative and creative, and working with our local partners. This project is a way for us to transmit the local spirit.”

With the coming of the three British chefs in the destination, brand Seychelles would be anticipating an influx visibility and maximization of its potential exposure.

MEDIA CONTACT: STB News Bureau, Tel: +248 4 671 354 / +248 4 671 313, stbnews@seychelles.travel  www.seychelles.travel

Seychelles Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine visits Shannon College graduates

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The Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine, Minister Didier Dogley accompanied by the Principal Secretary for Tourism, Anne Lafortune and the Director for Tourism Human Resource Development, Diana Quatre visited graduates of Shannon College at their current place of employment as part of a mentoring initiative, following a resolution at the last committee meeting held in December 2018.

The visit was conducted at four different hotels, namely the Four Seasons Resort Seychelles, Kempinski Seychelles Resort, AVANI Seychelles Barbarons Resort & Spa and the Constance Ephelia Seychelles on Monday 15th April 2019.

The purpose of the visit was to meet with graduates of Shannon College who are working in the hotels of Seychelles and establish a communication channel between the graduates and the Ministry.

The first hotel to be visited was the Four Seasons Resort Seychelles employing the largest cohort, comprising of 7 Shannon graduates. This was followed by Kempinski Seychelles Resort & Spa with two graduates, Avani Seychelles Barbarons Resort & Spa with one graduate and the Constance Ephelia Seychelles with 3 Shannon graduates.

During the visit, graduates were given the opportunity to express their views, in the presence of their hotel managers. The main point of discussion was centred on the minimum salary and career progression within the hospitality industry. Overall the graduates in the four hotels were satisfied with their working condition and the opportunity offered to develop their career further.

Minister Dogley stated that “The visits of the Shannon graduates in their workplace and the meetings held with their General Managers provided an excellent opportunity for me to learn about the progress they have made as professionals in the hospitality industry.  Most of them had clear career paths and personal development programs.

It was a real pleasure and an eye opener to discover that the majority of them are already working as managers in some of our top brand hotels.  This in itself shows that the vision government had for more well-trained and highly skilled Seychellois to take leadership roles in our hospitality industry is becoming a reality.”

 

The Ministerial delegation will also be visiting graduates from the other tourism establishments in order to provide similar opportunities for interaction. These visits are in line with the goal of the Ministry to ensure that the tourism sector is equipped with qualified individuals and shall endeavour to continue to assist graduates in achieving their dreams of progression to senior positions within the hotel industry.

 

To date, there are 74 Shannon College graduates who have gone through this programme.

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