Tourism Seychelles and trade partners boost visibility in the USA with successful marketing drive |08 August 2023

Tourism Seychelles, in partnership with Blue Safari Seychelles and the Association for the Promotion of Tourism to Africa (APTA), successfully launched a series of marketing activities, which included workshops, meetings and networking sessions, to promote Seychelles in the United States.

The activities took place in three major cities, starting in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, July 25, moving to Miami on July 26, and ending in the glamorous city of New York on July 27.

The Seychelles delegation was made up of Tourism Seychelles’ director general for Marketing, Bernadette Willemin; the regional director for Africa and the Americas, David Germain; Blue Safari Seychelles’ sales and marketing representative in the USA, Jill Polsky; as well as APTA personnel based in the US.

The aim of the activities was to promote Seychelles as a premier holiday destination for US travellers, educate and support the travel trade partners in the USA that are currently selling Seychelles, and provide training for new agents interested in learning more about the destination.

Mr Germain expressed his satisfaction with the outcome of the activities and praised the North American market’s continued performance as a tourism market for Seychelles.

“I am very satisfied with the outcome of the events and pleased with North America’s continued performance this year as a tourism market for Seychelles, featured for the first time among the top 10 leading markets for Seychelles.”

The participants were given a varied taste of what their clients can expect from a luxury Seychelles holiday and were introduced to two new niches by Tourism Seychelles in the North American market – diving and birding tourism.

Several other meetings and discussions took place in the different cities, including a visit to the Seychelles embassy in New York and a meeting with Ambassador Ian Madeleine focusing on collaboration and support for Tourism Seychelles’ marketing activities in North America. A lunch meeting was also held with the CEO and President of IGLTA in the USA, John Tanzella, and the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA) director of Membership & Programming, Luis Maravi.

Mrs Willemin expressed her appreciation for the opportunity to meet with trade partners in the United States.

“We are confident that this mission will assist us in improving our performance on the North American market, which has proven to be a steady growing market for our destination. We carefully prepared our mission to ensure that we target tourism trade professionals that either sell similar products or have previously interacted with our destination. Being in touch with our partners has given us insights into the market's interests to better tailor marketing tactics to match their preferences.”

There are currently more than seven airlines flying from the Americas with good connections to Seychelles, namely Emirates and Qatar Airways (via their hub in the Middle East), Ethiopian Airlines (via Addis Ababa) and South African Airways (via Johannesburg), with easy connections with Air Seychelles from Johannesburg to Seychelles – all great flight options for tourists from the Americas to Seychelles.

As outbound travel from North America to Africa and the region returns to normal, Tourism Seychelles plans to continue its marketing efforts to attract more North American travellers to Seychelles.

Contributed