Seychelles Candidate for the position of Secretary General of the UNWTO heads for Madrid to present his official documents
(Posted 16th January 2017)
Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Candidate for the position of Secretary General of the UNWTO left Seychelles on Monday afternoon by Ethiopian Airlines and is on his way to Madrid to present his official documents and formalise his candidature. The former Minister of the Seychelles responsible for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine said before he was leaving Seychelles that his working visit to Madrid falls during FITUR, the Tourism Trade Fair of Spain which gives him a great opportunity to network with Tourism Ministers coming from the Community of Nations.
‘Apart from presenting my official documents as the Seychelles Candidate for the post of Secretary General for the UNWTO, I have also organised one on one interviews with a number of press. On Tuesday the 17th I will join Tourism Ministers invited to a reception by His Majesty the King of Spain and I will also be attending the 2017 edition of the annual INVESTOUR conference where Africa meets Europe‘ said Alain St.Ange to a Kenyan media organization which was following up on an earlier release announcing his candidature.
Alain St.Ange of the Seychelles is joining the race for the top job in tourism and will be facing candidates from Georgia, Brazil, Korea and Zimbabwe. ‘It is a position under the umbrella of the UN. It is a democratic electoral process and every candidate are only after the best for the tourism industry. Candidates all know each other and have all interacted together as they have all been Tourism Ministers at one point in time. Member States of the UNWTO will elect who they see as the best person for the job. This is the normal course of action‘ said St.Ange.
Seychelles is one of very few countries where English and French are both official languages and St.Ange is coming forward as a candidate who worked in the private sector for many years become joining the Government as a Minister. He has been a strong advocate on public / private partnership for the tourism industry of Seychelles and this has helped him steer the industry with a lot of success.
The election for the position of Secretary General of UNWTO is without doubt the most strongly competed for ever and the range of candidates, more are expected to join the race, is of high calibre. Never before has the level of competition and campaigning reached this level before, making it a race to be watched until the moment votes are cast in Beijing at UNWTO’s General Assembly in May this year.
