Seychelles to open new tourist office in China |31 July 2010

This follows growing interest in our destination, especially after President James Michel’s visit to China last year, and is also the result of aggressive marketing by the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) to develop it as a strong secondary market.

The STB is placing one of its staff – Stephanie Lablache – in Beijing to man the office, which will be run under the auspices of Seychelles’ embassy in China.

Ms Lablache is already in China, working on Seychelles’ pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai. She will then help launch the new office alongside Ambassador Philippe Le Gall.

Seychelles made its biggest tourism presentation in China last October when The Seychelles Islands…another world  brand was launched for the first time there by President Michel.

Representatives from both the STB and the local trade were able to meet the Chinese travel trade and press in a bid to increase the visibility of Seychelles and create more opportunities for Chinese visitors to choose the islands for their holiday.

The STB is very hopeful of more visitors from China and is predicting around 5,000 by 2011.
STB chief executive Alain St Ange has said the Chinese market is big and the number of people travelling outbound is incredible.

“The market is big and we need only a small percentage to make a difference to our tourism industry,” he said.
Mr St Ange said they will only know how strong Seychelles can be in the Chinese market when the country gets an air link with China, which will make travelling to our islands easier.

STB