Five percent increase in visitor arrivals expected this year |06 January 2024

Visitors on a Condor flight landing at the Seychelles International Airport on September 30 last year. Germany was among the top three markets last year, with France and Russia being the two others

The department of Tourism is projecting a 5 percent increase in visitor arrivals for this year, to reach 368,500 visitors by the end of 2024.

According to ministry records, the outlook for the first half of the year looks extremely positive, with a six percent increase in seat availability from January to June.

Additionally, there is an increase in forward bookings for the upcoming five months as compared to last year, with over 30 percent increase for the months of March and May, in comparison to the same period of 2023. 

Nonetheless, the focus for the upcoming year remains on high-yield, low impact, as opposed to mass tourism, Minister for Tourism and Foreign Affairs, Sylvestre Radegonde, noted during a press briefing yesterday.

Targeted estimated earnings are yet to be finalised, as the department awaits the latest data from the Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS).

“The idea is to continue to get tourists to spend. We are pushing towards activities that encourage tourists to spend, we are pushing for cultural activities at district-level, and towards a livelier town of Victoria. This will give tourists more activities to engage in, and to spend on, and retain more earnings in the country.”

“We have done a lot towards this over the past year, but I do not think that we are anywhere near where we would have liked to be,” Minister Radegonde stated.

A key focus area of the ministry is to improve connectivity, to successfully tap into potential source markets, such as China and India. This falls in line with its objective of diversification of source markets.

Reviewing the performance over the year 2023, Minister Radegonde said the ministry is satisfied with the industry’s performance over the past year, with 350,879 visitor arrivals, representing an increase of one percent from the 348,000 target, set at the beginning of 2023.  Additionally, the figure represents a six percent increase from the 2022 performance.

Germany, France and Russia were the top three markets, followed by the United Kingdom and Italy. Arrivals from both Germany and Russia surged by over 20 percent.

While Israel remains among the top ten source markets, it is anticipated that arrivals have decreased by some 4000 visitors since the outbreak of the conflict with Palestine in October. Seychelles saw 18.5 percent less arrivals from Israel over the year.

Other source markets among the top ten are the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Switzerland, the USA, and South Africa.

Minister Radegonde attributed the positive performance to the hard work and collective efforts of the ministry, and partners, both domestic and international.

“The figures are much better than what we were expecting, and we are looking forward to an interesting year. Not without challenges, as there are still many challenges this year, but we remain positive that it will be an interesting year.”

“In general, we all worked well,” Minister Radegonde commended all stakeholders.

The minister highlighted the various challenges that urgently need to be curbed, if the industry is to remain competitive, in the face of intense competition.

Littering, theft and harassment are major causes for concern, he said, adding that it is essential that quality of service, offering value for money and noise pollution also be addressed.

“We need to continuously address these challenges and eliminate them, because if we do not do so, these are factors which will impact on the volume of tourists coming here, and the quality of visitors,” Minister Radegonde asserted.

It is expected that the tourism industry generated $945 million in earnings in 2023, lower than the initial projection of $1 billion.

Laura Pillay