New York breakthrough for Seychelles
The Seychelles promotion that took place in New York last week now needs to be built on so as to bring positive results to the country.
This is how Alain St Ange, director of tourism marketing at the Seychelles Tourism Board, described his trip to America, where Seychelles took part in the New York Times 2010 Travel Show.
“The interest in Seychelles shown by New Yorkers was evident, and now that the seed has been sown it needs to be nurtured to bring results for the country,” he said.
Mr St Ange was accompanied by Anna Butler-Payette of 7 Degrees South and they were joined on the Seychelles stand by Ronny Jumeau, Seychelles’ permanent representative at the United Nations, and Jacqueline Elias, the Seychelles tourism ambassador appointed for New York.
Mr St Ange said he was extremely satisfied with the country’s presence at the show, where Seychelles was also part of a four-strong African Tourism Board panel in a conference session entitled Focus on Africa.
The different countries had to answer questions from the press and US travel fair visitors so as to sell their countries to their audience.
Mr St Ange talked about Seychelles’ unique selling points and told the Americans that his country is an ideal add-on to any African holiday.
Seychelles is well connected with the Americas through Europe and South Africa by Air Seychelles, through Dubai and the Middle East by Emirates and Qatar, and through Kenya by Kenya Airways. Seychelles’ main job then is to increase awareness of the islands in that new market.
“We were a small delegation but managed to showcase Seychelles in a potential market suffering from extreme climatic conditions, with a snowstorm creating havoc in New York,” said Mr St Ange.
Mr St Ange also visited Ambassador Jumeau at Seychelles’ diplomatic mission office.
Source: NATION 3-6-10