Air Seychelles seals cooperation with the Seychelles Investment Board (SIB) |19 January 2017

New accord to promote Seychelles as an investment destination

Seychelles will be promoted as an investment destination and increase Air Seychelles’ exposure within the travel and trade industry.

This will be possible following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Air Seychelles and the Seychelles Investment Board (SIB) which aims to combine synergies when promoting the Seychelles as well as the national airline through trade and travel events.

The agreement was signed yesterday at the Air Seychelles’ VIP Lounge by the airline’s chief executive (CEO) Roy Kinnear and SIB CEO Rupert Simeon in the presence of SIB and Air Seychelles management teams.

Under this agreement both parties will jointly explore trade, tourism and investment opportunities across the Air Seychelles network and that of its partner airlines to increase the visibility of Seychelles and eventually grow the number of investors to our shores.

Apart from providing all members of SIB and incoming investors with more attractive fares when travelling on Air Seychelles, the two partners will also make extensive use of each other’s digital platforms to promote their offerings globally.

Mr Kinnear said the signing of this MoU has come at a very opportune time as the airline will be adding two new destinations to their network, Durban and Dusseldorf.

“We are delighted to extend our support to SIB and this achievement is a great step forward as it will benefit both SIB and Air Seychelles significantly as it will grow the awareness of Seychelles as an investment destination,” he said.

He said this remarkable partnership will not only grow the diversification of visitors arriving in Seychelles, but will further bring continuous development in the travel and trade industry, a key enabler of the Seychelles economy as at the moment almost more than 90% of visitors to Seychelles come for leisure.

Mr Kinnear said a common perception is that the growing number of visitors who travel to Seychelles is the sole responsibility of the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB).

“The work that SIB conducts is also very important in contributing to the number of visitors to the islands as it is about providing investment opportunities in Seychelles and working and building relationships and contacts with companies overseas therefore under this MoU we’ve created a great trade and commerce platform,” he said

Mr Simeon said this MoU is a first between the two entities and immediate benefits are enormous such as exposure through Air Seychelles inflight magazines, videos and website.

“I will instruct my marketing team to send an investment based video by the end of this week to be played on Air Seychelles fleet upon departure and landing which will create exposure for SIB as well as Air Seychelles as we encourage delegates of investors to use our national airline when travelling to and from Seychelles,” he said.

Mr Simeon thanked Air Seychelles for this cooperation and said he is proud to have SIB as a partner of the national airline.

“We will benefit from reduced rate for transportation for employees, stakeholders, delegates provided Air Seychelles operate to or has codeshare to the destination. We hope that with such an initiative SIB will be able to increase the number of business passengers on Air Seychelles and also increase the volume of cargo,” he said.