Stakeholders, partners in tourism trade commend l’Union Estate for economic turnaround |09 November 2019
Stakeholders and partners following a presentation during the meeting yesterday (Photo: Joena Meme)
The remarkable economic turnaround of l’Union Estate on La Digue during the past 21 months has been commended by stakeholders and partners in the tourism trade.
This was during the last multi-sectoral meeting for this year held yesterday morning at National House.
The meeting, chaired by the Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports & Marine Didier Dogley, was also attended by the Minister for Employment, Immigration & Civil Status Myriam Telemaque and the Minister for Environment, Energy and Climate Change Wallace Cosgrow.
Among the key facts that came out of a presentation on l’Union Estate on La Digue, which is the major source of employment on the island, is that an estimated 150 households (approximately 25% of La Digue population size) depend on it for an income.The estate employs 100 people of whom 95% are Seychellois /Diguois but there are also regular casual workers and indirect jobs through kiosk/beach vendors, tour guiding, tour operators, taxi operators who all depend on the l’Union Estate park operations.
Some 179,000 tourists visited l’Union Estate last year and this year from January to September altogether 137,000 visitors have visited the estate. This represents an average of 500 tourists per day and based on national statistics, l’Union Estate is getting on average between 55 to 60% of visitors holidaying in Seychelles with the peak periods being March, April, August and October.
It has been revealed that for the last 21 months l’Union Estate has made a profit of around R16 million out of which almost R9 million has been paid out as taxes to government which represents 56% of the estate’s contribution to the economy.
Meanwhile the estate’s operational costs during the same period has amounted to R30.6 million out of which around R23.5 million represents expenditure on operation for the estate’s park handling which include repairs, cleaning and maintenance, cost of cleaning material, promotional activities to name but some while the remaining R7.1 million went into the farming and agricultural activities.
It is worth noting that from January 2018 to September 2019 a total of 292 foreign weddings have been conducted at the estate which represents an average of 1.5 weddings a day.
But in spite of its good economic performance there was a concern that the entrance fee of R115 being charged per visitor was a rip-off. Frank Hoareau, the chairperson of the board of directors of l’Union Estate, went on to detail the different attractions that the estate offers to visitors like the plantation house, vanilla plantation, coconut mill which all need proper upkeep and he also went on to elaborate other initiatives that are being undertaken together with the Seychelles Heritage Foundation to promote and enhance the estate’s attractiveness and increase visitors’ experience.
But Minister Dogley said a visitors’ survey would be good to know how the many foreign visitors feel about the estate, something he has called on its board to take up.
Crime against tourists was an issue that was once against discussed. Through a presentation by the police it came out that the trend in general shows a decrease even though there has been a significant increase in February – from 14 cases last year to 30 cases in 2019, an increase of 16 cases – and then the following months, March to June, the cases have decreased considerably – from a total of 89 cases last year to 72 in the same period this year.
In July there was a case more than last year and then in August there was a sudden rise of 30 cases, a 20 case increase compared to only 10 during the same month last year.
Break-ins, thefts from tourism establishments and from beaches remain the most common form of offences.
Some business owners do not believe the police statistics detail enough the crimes taking place on Praslin and La Digue, which would give them a clearer indication what is happening and what is being done to address the problem on the islands.
The commissioner of police, Kishnan Labonte, said the fact that 52% of crimes are taking place in tourism establishments nationally shows there is a need for establishments big or small to step up security measures at their establishments.
The concern raised was that smaller establishments do not have the means to set up CCTV cameras or other highly sophisticated measures. But with a breakdown in statistics it is believed this would help small establishments to come together and organise security protection for their establishments.
The employment department also made a presentation on the National Labour Migration Policy and this was followed by questions and clarifications in relation to employment of foreign workers and the length of time they need to remain in employment before their positions are localised.
Issues relating to the two Bangladeshi employment agencies were also raised and there were concerns that establishing contacts with them is not easy. There have been calls to have two representatives of these agencies based here to facilitate the recruitment process for businesses.
Increase in GOP fees was also raised and Minister Telemaque has stated that all these concerns should be brought to the government’s attention through the right mechanisms.
With regard to the issue of renting beach beds, Minister Dogley noted that there are numerous opportunities for tourism related business diversification activities in the tourism sector which are yet to be explored but beach beds with umbrellas and other activities related to it is something that the tourism sector believes goes totally against what foreign visitors come looking for when they come to Seychelles. He said discussions are ongoing to reach a consensus between government and actors in the business before any pronouncement is made, a point which the Praslin Business Association is also totally against.
Christopher Gill of the Praslin Business Association stated that the discussions were frank and on the issue of beach beds he noted that beaches cannot be turned into marketplaces and in the process destroy the visitors’ dream of spending memorable moments on white sandy beaches.
He said such activities are called hawking and it is not good for the prosperity of our tourism industry.
Marie-Anne Lepathy