Young Russian/Seychellois promoting Seychelles |16 February 2022

Ilya Assary (Photo: Thomas Meriton)

Ilya Assary is a young Russian/Seychellois who is living in Russia. He arrived in Seychelles recently and on the same day he accepted to meet us, even though he was tired from the flight. So what is so special about this young boy of 11 years old?

Ilya’s last visit to Seychelles was when he was 7 years old. As he is growing older, he started questioning his parents – Richard and Irina – about Seychelles. He wanted more Russians to know more about his small island in the Indian Ocean.

So young Ilya started writing articles about Seychelles and started posting them online. Now he also has a YouTube channel talking about and promoting Seychelles. His aim is to do online media marketing to help promote Seychelles as a tourist destination for his age group. In a video posted on a social media platform, he asked for businesses to contact him if they want him to talk about their business online.

“I am so happy to be back in Seychelles and I want to discover the various activities that my peers and their parents can do. I want to tell them that Seychelles is very nice and have some yummy food. I love swimming, singing, catching fish and go on trails.”

During this visit, Ilya said he will make Seychelles popular in his country.

“I started my YouTube channel since 8 months and is gaining popularity. My mother helps me edit the videos. During my visit here I will be visiting the different islands, schools, communities in order to learn more about the Seychellois community,” shared Ilya.

Irina Belova-Assary, Ilya’s mum, added that Ilya is a people person and love to make friends. “In Russia, the children can write or post videos on any subject they want and post them on a specific platform. This is a growing phenomenon where children heavily promotes what they like.”

Seychelles NATION will follow the journey of this young man and we will write about his upcoming adventures in future editions.

Vidya Gappy