Miss University Africa Tourism 2021 pays courtesy call on President Ramkalawan |04 March 2022

Ms Gonthier in a souvenir photograph with President Ramkalawan (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

Gabriella Gonthier, who won the Miss University Africa Tourism 2021 title at the Miss University Africa 2021 pageant held on December 18 last year in Abuja, Nigeria, paid a courtesy call on President Wavel Ramkalawan yesterday at State House.

She was accompanied by Terry Carolla, the Miss University Africa Tourism country director for Seychelles.

In a short interview after her meeting with President Ramkalawan, Ms Gonthier, 23, briefly explained her exchange with the president.

She said the president fully supports the youth and congratulated her on her accomplishment to bring a crown to Seychelles.

She added that they also discussed the future, her dreams, her ambitions and the work ahead of her.

Miss University Africa Tourism 2021 sported her official crown on her visit as the previous Miss University Africa Tourism had not been able to make it to Seychelles for the crowning ceremony. Ms Gonthier received her official crown on Wednesday this week.

For her project Ms Gonthier, who is also a monitoring and evaluation officer at the department of the Blue Economy, is pushing for sustainable tourism, cultural tourism, stating that “Seychelles has many opportunities for eco-tourism”.

Miss University Africa Tourism 2021 said that tourism has many aspects and thus she will push for tourism in Seychelles as well as the entire African continent through partnerships and collaboration to promote and market the sector.

Ms Gonthier said that the best is yet to come and that she has a long duty and mandate ahead of her for her one-year reign.

She stressed that she really wants to make a difference in the tourism sector as the country is currently recovering from the effects of the pandemic.

Marla Simeon