STB accentuates its efforts towards GCC with Emirates Airlines |16 November 2019

The Emirates and STB delegations in a souvenir photograph

The Seychelles Tourism Board (STB), in its ongoing marketing strategy to bring the exotic destination close to the GCC region, conducted a meeting with Emirates Airlines on November 3, 2019 in Dubai, UAE.

STB’s chief executive Sherin Francis alongside the STB representative in Dubai Ahmed Fathallah met the Emirates Airlines team represented by the new commercial operations regional manager, Gaurav Pandey, and business analysis manager Silvy Sebastian.

The aim of the visit was for the STB team to extend its warm welcome to the new Emirates regional manager, who oversees the Seychelles in addition to making sure that both teams contribute to put the right measures in order to see continued growth in the industry.

During their discussions, the two teams centered their thoughts on tourism arrivals to the Seychelles, revenues of 2019 from the GCC region as well as forecasting for 2020 and beyond.

Mrs Francis stated that as part of the tourism board’s strategy, there is constant effort aimed at reaching out to travellers from the Arab world.

The account manager for STB office in Dubai, Ahmed Fathallah, who mentioned that there is a constant growth from the UAE market through the direct flight connectivity provided by Emirates, reinforced the statement.

“The continuous support and collaboration with Emirates Airlines enable us to increase our reach to all our regular and potential clients by making the destination accessible throughout the world via their extensive network,” Fathallah said.

This meeting between Emirates Airlines and the representatives from Seychelles was an opportunity to strengthen the unique selling points of the destination.

It further strengthened the assurance of mutual benefits for both parties as this initiative includes deeper levels of cooperation and exchange to further boost tourism flows from the region to the destination.

With more than 32,000 visitors from the GCC last year, the GCC market remains one of the very important market feeders to the destination to date.

Emirates Airlines has a fleet of 256 aircraft and connects Seychelles to 135 destinations and territories across six continents.

Text and photo contributed by STB News Bureau