aTP- Arab tourism portal- Business Magazine of the Indian Ocean is a 90 pages glossy monthly magazine published in Mauritius and covers primarily the economy of the Indian Ocean Region. The March issue of the magazine dedicates its front cover to Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture and carries an interview with the Seychelles Minister from pages 16 to 20.
Minister St.Ange was interviewed for the magazine by the journalist Himanshu Marchurchand when he was in Mauritius for the Ministerial meeting of the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands. "The tourism industry of Seychelles is today so important that everyone in the country is directly of indirectly touched by the tourism industry of ours" said Minister St.Ange as he was answering questions from Himanshu Marchurchand of Business Magazine.
The Magazine writes that Minister St.Ange of the Seychelles who is a strong defender of regional cooperation says that the region cannot be pushing for an airline approach that would at the end of the day destabilize Air Mauritius, Air Austral, Air Madagascar or Air Seychelles as he explains the positive economic performance of Seychelles which is the result of a successful tourism industry.
"The successes of 2015 surpassed even our own expectations" said Minister St.Ange as he addressed the adverse effects of exchange rates of the Euro versus the Seychelles rupee. The Minister speaks about the key USPs of his islands for investors citing stability, security and the guarantee that investments are safe in Seychelles.
On the question about challenges for the tourism industry as it is today regarded as being the pillar of the Seychelles economy the island’s Minister said that he is proud that tourism is the pillar of the economy but highlighted at the same time that Seychelles needed to see its Agricultural and Fisheries Industries also consolidated at the same time.
He spoke about the importance of tourism for the Seychelles economy in a lot of details as he touched on the subject of yield from the tourism industry for the islands.
On the question of competitiveness between Seychelles and Mauritius Minister St.Ange said that this does not exist as all and that he firmly believed that the islands of the Indian Ocean complimented each other much more that competed with each other.
