Another Successful Marketing Meeting for the Seychelles Tourism Board
Almasalla Arab Travel Portal News – By Ashraf El gedawy- The Seychelles Tourism Board s annual Marketing meeting 2013 ended with Sherin Naiken, the Chief Executive Officer of the Seychelles Tourism Board appealing to the Tourism Board s staff and to the private sector trade partners to redouble their efforts in order to ensure the continued prosperity of the island s tourism industry. "We all need to continue to be working in close collaboration and with the interests of the nation at heart" Mrs Naiken, CEO of the Tourism Board said.
For two days representatives of Seychelles Tourism Board’s offices in Europe, Asia, Africa and Middle East were gathered at Le Meridien Barbarons Hotel for an assessments of each market’s performance during 2013. Qualitative and quantitative assessment presentations were done by representatives from each of Seychelles Tourism Board’s Offices from key tourism markets. "They also had to present an outline of their proposed plans to advance the cause of Seychelles’ tourism in those key markets during 2014" Mrs Naiken said.
The audience consisted of members of the Marketing Department of the Seychelles Tourism Board and representatives from the local trade.
Each of the 15 minute presentations by the island’s Tourism Board Offices in the market place itself covered issues affecting Seychelles tourism in each of the key markets. Addressing such matters from their respective economic and political backgrounds, the question of airlift, promotions, media campaigns, arrival figures, statistics, customer demographics, performance audits and plans for increasing tourism arrival figures in 2014 were tabled and discussed.
The afternoon session consisted of a number of ’round robin’ meetings between the various Seychelles Tourism Board Offices and members of the local trade, DMC’s and Air Seychelles to discuss opportunities for synergising and further pushing tourism arrival numbers.
The Seychelles Annual Marketing then followed a long session of open discussions on various aspects of tourism and how to mitigate such challenges. The Seychelles key Unique Selling Points and the island’s known challenges inclusive of environmental cleanliness, affordability, air accessibility, service standards, a perceived lack of entertainment options for visitors, security, the high cost of inter-island transport and other concerns were discussed .
The 2013 Seychelles annual marketing meeting was yet another opportunity for the Seychelles Tourism Board and its trade partners to brain storm on the way forward for the tourism industry. It was Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture who officially opened the Annual Marketing Meeting last Wednesday morning.
