aTP- Arab tourism portal News- As Germany maintains its position as the Seychelles’ top tourism market in 2017, the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) continues to work with local trade partners to boost the knowledge of German travel agents on the destination.
Air Seychelles, with organizational support from the STB and generous sponsorship from various trade partners, treated eleven travel agents from Germany to a “spontaneous” familiarization ‘FAM’ trip to the islands from 7th to 9th July 2017.
The trip has been realized as part of Air Seychelles’ marketing drive to promote its twice-weekly non-stop air link from Düsseldorf, Germany, to Mahé. The eleven travel agents were in fact the lucky winners of a quiz-type competition, which saw the participation of more than 300 agents vying for a chance to win an educational trip to Seychelles.
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Accompanied by Mr. Victor von Schweinitz, Area Manager for Air Seychelles and Ms. Roya Fadai from the STB Office in Frankfurt, the group took off from Düsseldorf – a city of 1.2 million people in the densely populated westernmost part of Germany – just before 8pm local time on Friday 7th July. Touching down in Seychelles at 8am on Saturday, they were greeted by STB’s Director for Germany, Austria & Switzerland, Ms. Edith Hunzinger and Senior Marketing Executive, Ms. Stephanie Lablache.
Extending its courtesy towards the group, local DMC Mason’s Travel organised their transfer to the Seychelles capital, Victoria, where they enjoyed some deliciously sweet and refreshing coconut water at the Victoria market, which was bursting with locals doing their weekend shopping.
After checking in at the Coral Strand Hotel, which sponsored their overnight stay, the group visited H Resort Beau Vallon beach before enjoying a Creole lunch at the Boathouse restaurant accompanied by Air Seychelles and STB executives.
As this was a familiarization trip, the German travel agents got to explore Beau Vallon – a district on the northern coast of the main island Mahé, at their own leisure on Saturday afternoon. Those who preferred a more relaxing moment, got to know what it feels like to have a peaceful afternoon on theBeau Vallon beach, one of the island nation’s most iconic and popular beaches. Saturday evening ended with a visit at the Savoy Resort and Spa were they were treated to dinner hosted by the management.
The educational visit moved to the southern part of Mahé on Sunday as the group enjoyed a sightseeing tour provided by another local DMC 7° South. This included a trip to Jardin du Roi – a 21-year-old garden located in the hills of Anse Royale. There they got to discover various spices such as nutmeg, black pepper, vanilla and cinnamon as well as exotic and tropical fruit trees, which are all very popular among visitors.
After lunch accompanied with musical entertainment at the Chez Batista restaurant further up at Takamaka, the group was transferred back to the Coral Strand by Creole Travel Services.
A farewell cocktail concluded their brief, but highly informative and much-enjoyed stay in the Seychelles, after which Creole Travel Services returned the group to the airport in time for their 10.15pm departure.
Reaching Düsseldorf at the very start of a new work week the eleven travel agents are now more confident and knowledgeable to start selling Seychelles’ vacations to holidaymakers calling at their respective agencies.
Edith Hunzinger, director of the Seychelles Tourism Board office in Frankfurt said she was very pleased with the outcome of the FAM Trip.
“It was a spontaneous trip, born from a spontaneous idea we had only a few weeks ago. However, our office has had plenty of experience with ‘crazy’ weekend trips of this kind, and it always helped us build an even tighter bond between our destinations and the agencies that sell it to the consumer,” said Ms Hunzinger.
“This trip gave me confidence that the positive trend for the German-speaking market will continue throughout the year and beyond,” she added.
Since last month Germany has overtaken France as the leading source market for Seychelles when it comes to visitors’ arrival. Up to 9th July Germany had sent 24,146 visitors to the island destination.
