Kenya-Seychelles ties strengthened through UNWTO tourism conference |29 August 2015

Seychelles’ Minister for Tourism and Culture Alain St Ange was in Mombasa recently for the UNWTO East Africa Tourism Development Forum.

While there, he met William Ruto, the deputy President of Kenya, in the presence of Phyllis Kandie, the cabinet secretary at the Kenyan Ministry of Tourism of East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism.

Deputy President Ruto was representing President Uhuru Kenyatta at the opening ceremony of the UNWTO conference.

Kenya and Seychelles have always enjoyed friendly ties and many Seychellois lived and worked in Kenya during the period preceding the island's Independence from Great Britain in 1976.
Seychelles has always been proactive in the tourism arena and has been seen to be a solid working partner in marketing themselves in twin-centre packages. The Kenya Safari and Seychelles Beach Holidays is often programmed these days by tour operators in the four corners of the world using the tagline ‘From the Big Five to the Best Five’, a tagline that showcases the safari strongpoints of Kenya and the spectacular white sandy beaches of Seychelles.

Also in Mombasa for this UNWTO tourism forum were Dr Mohamed AbuZaid, the Minister for Antiquities & Wildlife of Sudan; Agnes Akiror Egunyu, the State Minister at the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities of Uganda; Elsia Grandcourt, the director for Africa at the UNWTO and Anita Mendiratta, the special advisor to the UNWTO secretary general as well as senior officials from the Ministry of Tourism of Tanzania. In Mombasa they were joined by Ali Hassan Joho, the Governor for Mombasa County; Dr Ibrahim Mohamed, the principal secretary at Kenya's State Department of Commerce & Tourism and Muriithi Ndegwa, the managing director at the Kenya Tourism Board among many others.

Minister St Ange said that it was great to see tourism being supported at the highest level by the Kenyan government and that he appreciated having had the opportunity to meet with deputy President Ruto as well as with his Kenyan counterpart Phyllis Kandie.

"Our discussions has helped pave the way for even closer cooperation that we already enjoy," said Minister St Ange as he left Mombasa on Sunday morning.