Tourism staff on Praslin gear up to welcome back visitors |07 August 2020
The workshop in progress
As tourism establishments on Praslin start welcoming foreign visitors, the department of tourism organised a workshop to ascertain the level of readiness of tourism employees for this new normal.
A total of 87 establishments were present for the event which was done in 2 batches at the Deepam Paradiso in Grand Anse on Wednesday.
The workshop was conducted by officials from the tourism department, which included the principal secretary, Anne Lafortune; the director for product development, Sinha Levkovic; the director for risk management, Philomena Hollanda and the director for human resource development, Diana Quatre, who was also the coordinator for the workshop.
The workshop covered the latest updated Travel Advisory and procedures for the ‘Safe Tourism’ certification. This was followed by an open discussion where participants could air their concerns. These were mainly in relation to the mandatory Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), the PCR tests, required documents upon entry at the airport and case management on establishment level if ever a Covid-19 case is suspected.
So far out of a total 167 establishments on the island, 29 have been certified, 47 visited while 17 are simply awaiting certificate disbursement. The department called on all establishments that had not finalised their SOPs to do so as soon as possible. They also stressed on continuous monitoring which will be ongoing after establishments have been certified and are in operation.
“The establishments have received all the necessary guidelines, trainings, they have developed their SOPs and some have been visited. So far we believe that they are generally well prepared and ready to welcome foreign tourists with the new measures. Though a few establishments remain hesitant we reassured them of our support,” Mrs Lafortune explained.
Mrs Lafortune also shared her satisfaction with the turnout and enthusiasm of the establishments.
“This shows that you are all eager to boost our tourism industry and we look forward to better days.”
The workshop was an opportunity for the tourism department to address issues discussed, with the hope that attendees will then share their reassurances to their employees or colleagues.
Text/photos: Nadia Bedier
