Fully-booked direct charter flight from Bulgaria lands in Seychelles |27 February 2023

The arrival of Bulgaria Air at the Seychelles International Airport yesterday afternoon

• Forms part of ongoing efforts to attract visitors to the destination

By Patsy Canaya

The Tourism department and the destination management company (DMC) 7°South Ltd yesterday welcomed a fully-booked charter flight operated by Bulgaria Air, with 180 passengers.

The nine-hour flight from Sofia, Bulgaria, with a stop in Djibouti, landed at the Seychelles International Airport shortly before 1pm, with mostly Bulgarian tourists.

It was in November 2022, during a blitz visibility campaign in Sofia, that the Tourism department announced there will be new direct flights early this year linking the Bulgarian capital, Sofia and Mahé as part of continued efforts to make the destination more accessible to Bulgarian travellers. It forms part of the destination’s strategy to expand its promotional efforts across all markets where there are noticeable potentials and according to Tourism Seychelles, Bulgaria was among its top five Central Europe markets.

Yesterday’s charter flight is a partnership between three Bulgarian tour operators; namely Planet Travel,  Luxutour and Abxa and their local DMC 7° South.

Speaking to the media, the director for marketing and contracting at 7° South, Corinne Delpech said they have been receiving bookings since November and 120 of the 180 passengers are their clients.

“It is a seven-day charter and most of our clients are staying at Ephelia and Kempinski on Mahé and a dozen of them are heading to Praslin,” said Ms Delpech.

She added that the package, excluding the flight, costs around €3500 per head and include several planned activities.

“We can negotiate the packages with many hotels, which provide us with a lot of support, and most of them give us interesting rates,” said Ms Delpech.

After going through immigration, the passengers were greeted with the sound of traditional music and performance by local musicians and dancers in the airport’s waiting area, before heading to their hotels.

Another direct charter flight is scheduled from March 18 to 26 and this will also be done with the support of 7° South. 

According to tourism statistics, a total of 1,719 Bulgarians visited Seychelles from January to October last year.

Patsy Canaya

Photos by Joena Meme