GROWING VISITOR NUMBERS PROMPT SEYCHELLES GOVERNMENT TO GIVE PONDERING INVESTORS A DEADLINE
(Posted 23rd October 2017)
As the Seychelles islands are looking at establishing yet another visitor record in 2017, and with Qatar Airways upgrading their daily Airbus A320 service to a wide body Airbus A330, is the question of more accommodation becoming a hot topic among tourism planners and administrators.While the Seychelles government – initially under former President James Alix Michel – imposed a moratorium for large hotels, defined as resorts with more than 25 rooms, which was restated more recently under the government of his successor Danny Faure is the drive on for more locally owned properties.
Yet, some larger resorts were excluded from the moratorium which presently runs until 2020.
It is those the Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine has now turned his attention to when he reminded 8 out of the exempted 18 project owners to either proceed or else risk losing their permits.
Some of those singled out are suspected of ‘hoarding‘ their permits and allocated sites for several years now and they were told that they either start construction within a year or else see government repossess the land and allocate it to more willing and financially capable investors.
The eight affected projects could generate an additional 1.300 rooms for the archipelago, needed to accommodate more and more visitors coming to the paradise islands which have enjoyed unprecedented marketing success and enjoy an excellent reputation as a long haul island destination.
According to statistics seen has the Ministry of Tourism presently over 540 establishments on their licencing books with a total of more than 5.800 available rooms and when the new projects are completed this number will rise to over 7.000.
This correspondent, enroute to the islands for the Festival Kreol, which this year combines for the first time with the Seychelles Carnival, will seek additional information when in Victoria in regard of current arrival levels and the projected growth over the next years to share with readers when reporting from the main island of Mahe.
