Seychelles tourism: a year in review

At the stroke of midnight tomorrow, Seychelles will clock another visitors’ arrival record to cap a year which has seen its fair share of highs and lows for tourism.

The official visitor arrival numbers issued every Wednesday without fail by the National Bureau of Statistics have kept the country duly informed on the performance of its tourism industry. This is the barometer used by the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) as one of its key indicators provided by an independent authority.

As much as the royal honeymoon of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on North Island in May will stay one of the highlights of the year, the announcement of the restructuring of the national airline – Air Seychelles – in November will leave a bitter taste to 2011.

Events like the “Carnaval International de Victoria” in March; the Seychelles Ball in September; and SUBIOS, The Seychelles Festival of the Sea, in November brought positive vibes in the industry, but on the other hand, the freak shark attacks in August at one of the most popular beaches in Seychelles sent shockwaves across the country.

Tourism experts are concerned that the decision to drastically cut back on the services of Air Seychelles would impact negatively on the industry for many months, especially in France and Italy which is the islands’ main key markets. The loss of direct nonstop flights from Paris, Rome, and Milan is set to greatly impact on visitor arrival numbers.

The government announced the measures in November as part of the airline’s restructuring and repositioning process to turn Air Seychelles into a regional airline, as it said the country could no longer sustain the operational compounding losses of the state-owned airline.

Singapore was the first service to be cut immediately after the announcement while the pull-out from all long-haul services to Europe takes effect after the New Year. Now, as part of its planned regional operations next year, Air Seychelles will initially be operating only to Mauritius and Johannesburg using a B767-300 aircraft.

Amid concerns that these new measures will impact negatively on visitor arrivals to the islands, especially out of Europe, which accounts for 75 percent of total visitors to Seychelles, the government has entered into talks with a number of international airline companies to see how they can fill the void left by Air Seychelles and ensure continuous services to the islands.

Visitors flying Air Seychelles out of Europe have had the advantage of direct non-stop flights to the islands but there is now concern that if this option is not available anymore, the country might lose business to its competitors which has far better direct nonstop connections.

But the good news so far is that Air Austral has announced it will be offering a non-stop, Paris-Seychelles service, with an onward to Reunion from the end of March 2012. It will use that same route for its return leg. Blue Panorama airline has also announced its intentions to operate direct flights from Milan and Rome to Seychelles, thus covering the Italian market.

Everyone will remember that only a few months before the Air Seychelles announcement, another event that sent shockwaves through every home in Seychelles was the shark attacks on Praslin. Our ocean is known as being among the safest in the world, where no predators lure, and tourists can swim to their hearts’ content.

But the deaths of Frenchman Nichol François Xavier Virolle and Englishman Ian Redmond from shark bites triggered understandable concerns among Seychelles’ overseas trade partners. Tourism operators on Praslin rallied like never before to reassure clients and partners while fishermen took to the sea in a brave attempt to chase the killer shark out of the waters. At the same time, Seychelles launched an aggressive PR campaign to save its safety label and reassure its tourist markets. Precautionary measures were also taken in the high-risk areas and one of those was the installation of exclusion nets.

The tragic events are known to have provoked a few cancellations, but overall, Seychelles’ reputation as one of the safest destinations remains intact. Ironically, the Anse Lazio beach went on to be rated as one of the top 13 beaches in the world by Bing travel last week, confirming it remains well-liked by travelers and critics.

For another year, the piracy issue came back as a thorn for the industry in 2011, as the repercussions of continuous attacks at sea (though fewer in the waters), posed a setback for the yachting and boating business as movements and cruises are restricted to the safer zones.

Source - eturbonews