Tourist arrivals exceed 2021 figures |05 August 2022
Mrs Willemin speaking during the press conference yesterday (Photo: Kurtrine Albert)
As of the third quarter of 2022, the number of visitors travelling to Seychelles has surpassed the total recorded last year.
This was pointed out in a press conference yesterday afternoon at the Botanical House with the director general for Destination Marketing, Bernadette Willemin.
It was on July 27, 2022 that the 182,850th visitor disembarked at the Seychelles International Airport, officially breaking the visitor arrival figures of 182,849 for the previous year.
“If we look at the cumulative figure from January to July 31 this year, we have already recorded 187,411 visitors. We will definitely surpass the projection that we made, in terms of arrival figures, to finish this year.”
Mrs Willemin noted that if the same trend that has been observed since the fourth quarter of last year is maintained, then they are on the right track.
The projection that Tourism Seychelles had made was that they would finish the year with a total of 258,000 visitors and Mrs Willemin claims that should the current pattern remain as it is then they think that this figure will be exceeded, with an expectation of around 300,000 cumulative visitors instead.
In regards to the markets from which we are receiving visitors, our main source market in general is Europe. “Today, we see again that Europe is catering for 74% of our business. When we say Europe, the large majority of our visitors are coming from our traditional markets. Since the fourth quarter of last year, we have seen the coming back of our markets from Western Europe.”
Mrs Willemin noted that these traditional markets in Europe consist of France, Germany, England and Italy. She reminded that France is currently the leading market for arrival figures in Seychelles, with Russia still holding its 3rd position on the list. Another significantly large market business source is Asia, which is contributing 15%. The countries from this market where a great number of visitors are coming from include the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Israel and India.
Closer to home, the African market is making up 6.7% of the business, with the leading country for this continent being South Africa. This comes as no surprise as South Africa is being served directly by our national airline, Air Seychelles. Despite the fact that America is not one of the large markets, Mrs Willemin emphasised that the United States of America (USA) is still doing very well as an individual, as it happens to occupy a place in the top ten market countries.
“If we speak on earnings, currently I can say that we have made US $223.25 million up to now. This is approximately 50% of what we made in 2019, which was about US $589.67 million. Hence, this means we are not doing too bad for the moment.”
Mrs Willemin urges all entrepreneurs and businessmen in general to take this opportunity to become more innovative and creative, to provide visitors with a wider experience so that they can leave behind a larger amount of money here in the country.
Mrs Willemin also mentioned that there are currently thirteen airline companies serving our destination and that Aeroflot has shown interest in bringing back its flight to Seychelles, although it has not sent out any official confirmation to state that it is returning.
Sylia Ah-Time