"Times Now" positions Seychelles tourism personalities as leaders of Global Tourism
Almasalla,Gate Arab Tourism News- Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister for Tourism and Culture and Sherin Naiken, the Chief Executive of the Seychelles Tourism Board are positioned on "Times Now" of India as leaders of the Global Tourism Industry.
‘Times Now’ India met Minister Alain St.Ange and Miss Naiken in Mumbai on August 6 to record segments of a panel discussion to be aired in a special half hour TV episode. Armed with its most reputed news anchor Devina Gupta, India’s iconic figure of panel discussions on social and political issues, possessing a strong business background, Minister St.Ange and Miss Naiken were asked challenging questions, convincing the audience that they deserve the connotation ‘leaders of Global Tourism Industry’.
Devina Gupta questioned Minister St.Ange about Seychelles and its USPs, innovative strategies adopted to promote the country, trends and interesting developments in the global tourism and best practices of the Seychelles Tourism Board on its other main source markets.
As Seychelles became more aggressive in its marketing drive to re-position the destination in India, ‘Times Now’ of India was interested to dig into the reasoning behind the strong presence of Seychelles in India during the period of August 1 to 7, and why so many international tourism boards are flocking to India hoping to claim a share of the Indian outbound tourism market.
Devina Gupta also used the panel discussion to shed light on the influence of films and Bollywood on a traveller. Zooming on Miss Naiken, India’s anchor personality on ‘Times Now’ questioned her about the Seychelles Tourism Board’s plan for the Indian market, and possible challenges she faced and how she was overcoming her plans to re-conquer the Indian market after the Air Seychelles short appearance a few years ago with a service to India.
The CEO of the Tourism Board took time to explain the close working partnership that today existed with the National Airlines of Seychelles and the island’s Tourism Board. Miss Naiken said "Seychelles was now ready to come to India to claim its fair share of that market.
The Seychelles Minister of Tourism followed Miss Naiken to say that Seychelles was working on its core tourism markets more aggressively. "We remain focused, we plan ahead in our annual Marketing Meeting when the tourism private sector of the islands join the public sector to map the way forward. India has been on our radar for a few years and we can say that we are now ready.
We are often approached during the year with ad-hoc new marketing and sales programs, but we remain focused only on what our public/private sector discussions mandated as this stops us diluting our resources" the Seychelles Minister said.
The one special half hour episode on ‘Times Now’ of India also took a closer look from an Indian economics perspective, what should a new destination like Seychelles do to tap a wider audience in India. The question was raised to Karan Anand, the Relationships & Supplier Management from Cox & Kings Ltd. Mr Anand who heads the company, identified Seychelles as a potential new product, and a new destination that would appeal to new age traveller.
He also gave his reactions on unique characteristics of Indian travel trade community and measures carried out to put on offer what the potential holiday maker wanted.
‘Times Now’ of India is set to broadcast the panel discussion in a special half hour programme. The panel discussion will also broadcast segments of Divia Thani Daswani, the editor in chief of Conde Nast Traveller on influence and choice of media and expectations of the Indian reader and travellers as well as that of Tanuj Garg, the Chief Executive of Balaji Telefilms on the role of films in promoting a destination, and recommendations for a new destination like Seychelles tapping into Indian film industry among others. Videos of showcasing Seychelles as a hot spot tourism destination for the Indian travellers was also integrated within the programme.
