‘Seychelles stays safe and tourists are not infecting Seychellois’ |17 May 2021
Tourists landing at the Seychelles International Airport following the re-opening of the country’s borders (Photo: Thomas Meriton)
“Seychelles remains open to all tourists except those from exempted countries, and the island nation will not be introducing quarantine measures for inbound visitors. Seychelles remains safe and tourists are not infecting Seychellois.”
This statement was made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs & Tourism, Sylvestre Radegonde, in a press meet last Friday. He was accompanied by the principal secretary for tourism, Sherin Francis, to update us on our current tourism status.
“Since we took the decision to open our frontiers on March 25 and allowing tourists to come in without having to go through quarantine, we have seen a positive development in the number of tourists that have come to Seychelles and also in all related businesses. Since our opening, some 24,000 tourists have already come to our islands. The weekly arrivals and the number of airlines flying into Seychelles show that we are welcoming 500 tourists per day. Some days there are more tourists. We have also noticed that all the big hotels are operating at full capacity. They have a bigger network and do not depend on the marketing of STB. The small hotels are also getting some businesses and since March, 37% of our visitors go in smaller hotels or self-caterings around Mahé, Praslin and La Digue.”
Minister Radegonde announced that currently our main tourism markets are Russia, Israel and UAE. “When it comes to visitors, they remain safe. Establishments that they go to are certified establishments following the different health protocols in place. There will be no change to our plans – Seychelles will remain open to tourists. There won't be any quarantine measures for visitors coming into the country,” he added.
The challenge remains that our main markets remain closed and the spike in the number of Covid-19 cases locally is because some Seychellois are not taking enough precautions.
The minister also talked about how he counteracted the negative press around the surge of Covid-19 cases in Seychelles by giving various interviews to the international media houses such as CNN, BBC, Television Française and the Telegraph.
“Regardless of our status, each Seychellois should play their role in maintaining the positive image of Seychelles so that when tourists come here, they want to come back. Value for money remains a challenge and we should not take advantage of the tourists as we will kill the industry. We have received complaints from different services and we have also seen theft on the beaches. The reputation of Seychelles is at stake.”
The minister also spoke about the cleanliness of our islands and mentioned the state of La Digue.
The Minister for Tourism is giving full support to the Ministry of Health and urges each one of us to take our responsibility in order to keep Seychelles on top of the mind of the world in terms of holiday destination.
Seychelles is currently not accepting visitors from South Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Brazil.
Vidya Gappy