Tourism minister continues visits to tourism businesses |17 April 2014

The Minister for Tourism and Culture Alain St Ange has been continuing his 'door to door' visits to tourism businesses in the country.
Minister St Ange started this series of visits two weeks ago on the Grand Anse side of Praslin where he stopped at some 27 hotel properties.

On Tuesday next week he is scheduled to be back again on Praslin to continue his 'door to door' visits of hotels.

"This will go on until we have visited every establishment on the list of 117 hotels and guesthouses on Praslin and until we have sat down with the owners or managers of each establishment and heard directly from them what they see as challenges and also share with them what they feel they have achieved for themselves as their successes," Minister St Ange said.

These hotel visits is also an opportunity for Minister St Ange and his delegation to meet staff at these establishments and to see how satisfied they are in their job.

Last week Minister St Ange, who was accompanied by a delegation made up of tourism principal secretary Anne Lafortune, Jenifer Sinon from the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB), Sinha Levkovic from the product management unit of the tourism department and Sandy Ally, personal assistant in the minister's office, continued his 'door to door' visits with calls on DMCs (destination management companies) and airline offices.

At the Emirates HQ the minister and his delegation were greeted by Oomar Ramtoola and Denise Rassool. Mr Ramtoola, the regional representative of Emirates, had flown to Seychelles especially for this meeting with Minister St Ange and his delegation.
After greeting every member of the Emirates staff, Minister St Ange and his delegation got the opportunity to hear from the management team of Emirates their views of the Seychelles tourism industry and the challenges they see.

"The meeting was frank, interesting and very important for the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. We heard of positive news that for the two coming months the Emirates flights to Seychelles were already fully booked. We also heard of the challenges faced by Emirates with Seychelles being the only station where the airline still cannot offer online check-in. We spoke about applicable costs as we did hear of staff conditions of employment. All in all the meeting was seen by both parties as a positive exercise for Seychelles tourism," Minister St Ange said.