aTP- Arab tourism portal- The Seychelles Tourism Board organised a two-day digital marketing and social media workshop for its partners in the industry last week.
This workshop, the first organised in Seychelles was held at the Seychelles Trading Company’s conference hall, in Victoria.
E-tourism frontiers founder and chief executive Damian Cook led the workshop which was aimed at training the tourism trade partners on how to maximise their ability to make the most efficient use of digital marketing platforms, and use practical tools and tactics so as to revitalise their social media strategy and align it with the latest landscape.
The tourism trade partners have been requesting such training for over a year now as this would enable them to keep up to date with the latest online marketing methods and keep their establishments and companies visible online.
The training covered social media strategy – such as using social media platforms which include Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linked In, Pinterest, Youtube ̶ to better market their establishments online, search engine optimisation which would enable them to make their websites and blogs appear on search engine sites such as Google and Yahoo.
Other topics covered included website design and responsive websites, content creation, social media targeting, case studies and success stories
Mr Cook is a recognised social media expert with more than 10 years of digital marketing experience.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, the chief executive of the Seychelles Tourism Board Sherin Naiken said the trends and choices of our guests have rapidly changed but the product remains mostly the same.
She added that hotels had no choice years back when marketing their products. They had to depend on companies that were specialised in destination marketing.
This has today changed as operators have more choices to reach their clients through their own ways without having to rely solely on the intermediary, she said.
Miss Naiken added that these operators in the tourism industry can now monitor the trends and find the right marketing strategies to use.
“The digital world has revolutionised the way our destinations are to be marketed. It is no longer business as usual,” she said.
Attending the opening of the two-day workshop were the principal secretary for tourism Anne 
Lafortune and the deputy chief executive of the Seychelles Tourism Board Nathalie Didon.
Those who were taking part in the workshop received certificates at the end of the two days.
A similar training session was also organised for the staff of the Seychelles Tourism Board staff a day prior.
