Emirates Renews its Support for the Seychelles Tourism Industry
on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market 2016
aTP- Arab tourism portal- Dubai,– Emirates, the world’s largest international airline, Tuesday renewed its support to jointly promote tourism in the Seychelles by extending its global marketing agreement (MoU) with the Tourism Board of the archipelago.
The MoU was signed by Orhan Abbas, Emirates’ Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations for Africa; and Sherin Naiken, Chief Executive Officer of the Seychelles Tourism Board, in the presence of Alain St. Ange, Minister of Tourism and Culture of the Seychelles and Thierry Antinori, Emirates’ Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. The signing took place on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market 2016.
“Seychelles is a very important destination to Emirates and this explains why we are renewing our commitment to promote the islands’ attractions around our global network.
In 2015/16 financial year, Emirates carried over 180,000 passengers from and to,” said Orhan Abbas. “We will develop a series of joint activities together with the tourism boards of Seychelles aiming to increase the visibility of the destination with our clients. We truly believe that this partnership is beneficial to both parties and are confident that positive results will be seen in the short term,” he added.
“I am delighted to be signing this MOU with our loyal and much valued partner Emirates Airline which will serve to foster and further the excellent spirit of collaboration that already exists between us,” said Sherin Naiken.
The Agreement will see marketing activities such as attendance of tourism trade shows and fairs, trade familiarisation trips, product presentations and workshops, amongst others, be undertaken to achieve the parties’ objectives.
In 2015, over 270,000 tourists visited Seychelles; the destination’s main markets being France, Germany, Italy, UAE, UK, China, South Africa, Russian Federation, Switzerland and India.
In June 2015, Emirates increased its capacity to the Indian Ocean Island of Seychelles, when it switched from the Airbus 330-200 used on one of the two daily services to a larger Boeing 777-300ER. The introduction of the Emirates Boeing 777-300ER, which operates as flight EK 705 from Dubai and as EK 706 on the return flight, increased the overall capacity on the route by 1722 seats per week and made the route an all-Boeing 777 operation.
Emirates has a fleet of more than 250 aircraft and flies to more than 150 destinations across six continents.
