Seychelles' tourism meeting underway, seasonal offers discussed 

Willemin stressed the importance of adapting to the market and having a low and high season. (Gerard Larose)

The Tourism Department is calling on the actors in the industry to embrace the seasonality that Seychelles, like many other destinations, experiences annually.

Speaking to SNA at the Department's bi-yearly marketing meeting, the director general for Destination Marketing, Bernadette Willemin, emphasised the importance of working with market fluctuations instead of against them.

Traditionally, Seychelles experiences a drop in visitor numbers around the May-June period every year. This year for the week ending July 7, the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show only a one percent growth during this period compared to last year.

"In terms of marketing, we have not stopped promoting the versatility of Seychelles. We intend to have a meeting where we will rally everyone concerned, airlines, hotels, DMCs (destination management companies) and others around one table where we will address this subject of seasonality. We do not want to face the same issue next year," she said.

Willemin said next year "collectively as an industry, we can have offers that we can send to the different markets abroad well in advance. It's true that today, some hotels are reducing their prices, but isn't it a little too late? Especially for those who sell through distribution channels such as travel agencies and tour operators abroad, it's already late because they have many other countries to offer their clients to sell, they are not waiting for your offer and by the time it comes in it's too late."

Had the offers come at the start of the season these agencies would have been able to sell it easily and Willemin said this is what the Department wants from the industry, early bookings and the earlier the better. 

She stressed the importance of adapting to the market and having a low and high season offer and that "we cannot have a flat rate throughout. If it is the low season and we are pricing ourselves more than our competitors, naturally the visitors will choose the other country."

The director general said the Department found that the large establishments are familiar with the yielding, and perhaps some small establishments are still new and unaware.

"As a facilitator, we want to ensure that they get access to this kind of expertise. For example, recently we organised a meeting with booking.com to explain to the small establishments the complexities of using this platform. We are also planning more workshops with different experts in the future," she added.

She said that airlines also have an impact, especially since several airlines have stopped their flights to Seychelles until later this year.  

The participants of the bi-yearly meeting met with Seychelles' President Wavel Ramkalawan at State House on Friday. (Seychelles Nation) Photo License: CC-BY

The marketing meeting is an opportunity for marketing managers and representatives of Seychelles, who are based around the world, to touch base and discuss the way forward in promoting the island country.

The participants of the bi-yearly meeting met with Seychelles' President Wavel Ramkalawan at State House on Friday.

The principal secretary for Tourism, Sherin Francis, told reporters, "This meeting was an opportunity for the President to gain more insight into the work that the representatives do abroad. They talked about their accomplishments as well as the challenges they face. This work is very hectic with irregular hours and frequent events over the weekend. They are often away from their families so it is very challenging. They are usually a one-man team." 

Tourism is the top contributor to the economy of Seychelles, a group of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean.