Department of tourism meeting with hotel general managers   |25 March 2022

The meeting held this week with hotel managers (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

Urgent need to infuse local culture within the tourism industry

• Providing a proper cultural experience of Seychelles to visitors

Visitors should be given a proper cultural experience of Seychelles, while the community should also directly benefit from the tourism industry, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism Sylvestre Radegonde has said.

Minister Radegonde was speaking during a meeting this week between the department of Tourism and hotel general managers as part of the continuous discussion between the ministry and various stakeholders within the industry.

Most of the topics discussed were in line with the department’s strategic plan, especially the needed urgency to protect the fragile industry.

Cultural tourism is one of the largest and fastest-growing global tourism markets, with culture and creative industries increasingly being used to promote destinations and enhance their competitiveness and attractiveness.

Being a competitive industry, culture is increasingly being used as an important element of the tourism product, precisely to create distinctiveness in a crowded global marketplace.

Cultural tourism experiences include architectural and archaeological site visits, culinary experience, artefacts, festivals, sites, monuments and landmarks, while other than providing visitors with the opportunity to broaden their own personal horizons, it can also provide the locals with the opportunity to benefit financially from their cultural heritage and thus to appreciate it and preserve it.

The meeting, which took place at the Botanical House in the presence of principal secretary for tourism Sherin Francis, director general for destination marketing Bernadette Willemin, and director general for destination planning and development Paul Lebon, was also an opportunity to share ideas, especially representatives of tourism establishments that are already into that kind of activity to share their experience with their counterparts.

Several proposals to partner with other department and entities to better involve local artists of various elements within the industry were brought forward, including the setting up of centralised database with the contacts of the artists.

As much as being pro-cultural tourism, Minister Radegonde however noted that local artists, entertainers and all those involved in offering the services should be reasonable in terms of how much they charge the clients.

On the agenda for discussion was also the way forward in mentoring graduates of the Advanced Diploma in Hospitality Management (ADHM) programme – launched with the aim of producing more managers that are Seychellois for the tourism and hospitality industry – and graduates of the Shannon College of Hotel Management (SCHM) – a recognised college of the National University of Ireland (NUI).

Beach-related issues discussed during last week’s first tourism sectoral meeting for 2022 were also discussed at this week’s meeting, addressing topics such as beach bed vendors, commission agents and erection of structures on the seashore.

Roland Duval