Tourism department set to launch cultural tourism products   |27 July 2022

A variety of cultural tourism products have been identified and work is underway to launch some of them to coincide with various national cultural events, National Assembly members have learnt.

This was in answer to a question by MNA for Plaisance Richard Labrosse, who wanted to know if the tourism department’s strategy include cultural tourism and the different examples being considered.

The director general for destination planning and development in the tourism department, Paul Lebon, said the department of tourism has been working on its cultural and heritage tourism aspect with the aim of bringing it to the community. Meanwhile the department has completed a cultural audit in five districts namely Beau Vallon, Baie Lazare, La Digue, Baie Ste Anne (Praslin) and Au Cap.

A total of 147 persons or potential products have been interviewed and identified and a lot of work is being done in close collaboration with the Seychelles National Institute for Culture, Heritage and the Arts to develop and fine tune these products .

Mr Lebon announced that they are planning to launch an event on La Digue to coincide with the August 15 annual activities on the island.

“The launch of other activities are being planned to coincide with Tourism Week in September. There will also be the ‘Bazaar Domaines’ at Domaine de Val des Pres toward the end of September on which work in collaboration with the department of culture is well in progress. This will be followed a month later by the open arts fair and subsequently by the open craft fair. The idea of the fairs is to showcase authentic crafts produced by Seychellois artisans who will also have the opportunity during the fairs to host workshops for visitors to learn the different crafts,” Mr Lebon detailed.

He also announced that work is underway to refurbish the Musée Coco also situated at the Domaine de Val des Pres and which is expected to reopen early September to provide another attraction for visitors.

Meanwhile Mr Lebon has pointed out that the different national cultural events being planned will be in parallel to the work the tourism department is doing with all the Seychellois individuals identified in the different districts to showcase their cultural products as well as their artistic talents, be it at their homes and other locations, so that visitors can try their hands as well.

Meanwhile the cultural audit in other districts is continuing.

Marie-Anne Lepathy