Ministry of Tourism and Culture of Seychelles has embarked on a series of "door to door" hotel visits on Praslin
Almasalla Arab Travel Portal News – The Seychelles Ministry of Tourism and Culture has embarked on a series of "door to door" hotel visits to ensure that its senior management team understands the properties and the challenges & successes of these establishments.
The first in this series of ‘door to door’ visits started on Praslin, with twenty seven establishments ranging from five stars to small hotels.
Alain St.Ange, the Minister for Tourism and Culture, Anne Lafortune, the Principal Secretary for Tourism, Sherin Naiken, the Chief Executive Officer of the Seychelles Tourism Board, Rose Mary Hoareau, the Director of Marketing at the Tourism Board and Sinha Levkovic, the Director Standards and Regulations at the Department of Tourism first stopped at the Constance Lemuria Resort where they were welcomed by the Management team of the hotel.
Minister St.Ange explained to Constance Lemuria Resort’s Management team that it was important for his Ministry to embark on this innovative ‘door to door’ approach as this ensured more dedicate time with each hotel manager and quality to understand challenges and constraints faced by each and every hotel of the island.
“It was time for us to break away from our traditional approaches of holding meetings with big groups of hotels. Normally we rallied every-one in a room to listen to the trade, but few spoke and we often left the meetings unsure if we hd heard the vies and opinions of everyone. We knew that we needed to hear of not only your successes, but also hearfirsthand of your challenges. We felt it was time to dedicate more time than ever before to the industry and meet you on a more personalised basis. Seeing properties are one thing, knowing properties is as important for everyone’’. Minister St.Ange said.
Tourism establishments are a booming industry on Praslin, with an estimated of 113 hotels currently licensed on the island.
The growth of hotels on Praslin Island is undoubtedly putting a strain on these properties to recruit. From five stars to small properties, the difficulties to recruit suitable workforce in the tourism industry remains a major challenge.
Although Constance Lemuria Resort boosts a workforce of four hundred workers, of whom fifty three percent are locals, Bruno Le Gac, the resort’s new General Manager said that shortage of staff is a persisting problem at the hotel.
“The Resort’s ‘Bright’ programme of training Seychellois to take management and supervisory positions is well on track. More than 22 Seychellois benefited from this program. Our major challenges now is to recruit Seychellois especially those working on the Island to work at the resort.” Mr Bruno Le Gac said.
On his first day of ‘door to door’ Minister Alain St.Ange and his delegation visited the following properties in the Amitie, Anse Kerlan areas of Prsslin:-Constance Lemuria Resort, Terasse sur Lazio, Villas du Voyageur, Cap Jean Marie Villas, Anse Kerlans Beach Chalets, The Islander & The Islander Annex, Chateau Sans Souci, Butterfly Villa ex Villa Grand Mer, Villa Plein Soleil, Villa Sofia, Sunset Cove, Sea Shell Self Catering, Casa Tara, Villa Castello & Castello Beach Hotel.
During the different meeting with the different hotel and gust house Managers it was pointed out the ongoing shortage of local workers which was pushing small and five stars hotels to seek to recruit foreign workers.
Many small hotels also complained that they found GOP for the recruitment of needed foreign workers rate high and the process complicated. They also said that they have to bear the cost of medical fees for their foreign workers even if they had paid insurances to local agents.
Hotels in the Anse Kerlan area complained about noise pollution from Air Seychelles flights especially early mornings and evenings.
The majority of Hotels, large and small, visited on the first ‘door to door’ visits on Praslin have said that they are satisfied with their occupancy level and for the couple experiencing difficulties with their occupancy levels, Minister St.Ange encouraged them to work closely with Seychelles Tourism Board to better market their products.
Ministry of Tourism and Culture first ‘door to door’ visits on Praslin concentrated in Anse Kerlan, Amitie and Grand Anse.
Tomorrow, Friday the 28th March Minister Alain St.Ange and his delegation will continue with hotel visits in the Grand Anse area of Praslin.
The Minister said that he would then be back again on the island in the coming weeks to visit hotels and guest houses in the other regions of Praslin.
