GERMANY OVERTAKES FRANCE AGAIN WITH MOST VISITORS TO SEYCHELLES
(Posted 24th June 2017)
Almost halfway through the year 2017, Germany has taken the number one spot as the Seychelles main tourism market once again.
According to latest statistics the National Bureau of Statistics released on Thursday, 21,642 German visitors came to the island nation up to Sunday June 18th. This figure is a massive 29 percent above those recorded for the same period last year.
This means Germany has surpassed its closest contender, France, which has long been the main tourism market for Seychelles. France, which was number one since the beginning of the year is now second, having sent 20,922 visitors to the island destination. This trend was last observed in 2014, when Germany outperformed France in terms of visitor arrivals before France regained its position in 2015.
Air links between the Seychelles archipelago and Germany received a huge boost this year, which is seen as a major contributing factor to the increase in German visitors. The national airline, Air Seychelles started twice-weekly direct flights to Dusseldorf in March 2017. In recent years, the route was primarily served by German leisure airline, Condor, which also started to charter a second direct weekly flight to Seychelles last year.
Commenting on the latest trend in visitor arrival statistics, the Chief Executive of the Seychelles Tourism Board, Mrs. Sherin Francis said: ‘Seychelles today is more connected to its source market than ever and that is especially for Germany. More airlines to the destination also means more marketing support for Seychelles as well‘.
With Austrian Airlines scheduled to launch a once-weekly nonstop service to Seychelles in October this year, it is expected that this will further boost visitor arrivals from Germany and other German-speaking markets, including Switzerland and Austria.
The Seychelles Tourism Board has increased efforts to create awareness of the destination among German travelers with the support of its partners, including the national airline and other international carriers that bring visitors from German-speaking markets to Seychelles.
‘It is important to always look at the big picture where growing the tourism number for the country. Where we see opportunity for growth, our team always look to capitalize on it. The team out there with our faithful partners has done a tremendous job and should be commended‘ concluded Mrs. Francis.
Visitor arrivals from Europe as a whole is also encouraging having increased by 21 percent so far compared to the same period last year. Aside from France, which has so far recorded a decrease of 4 percent, other European markets have recorded positive results so far — Italy (6%), Russia (31%), Germany and UK & Northern Ireland (29%).
Ranked fourth among the leading markets, the United Kingdom is one that has also shown remarkable progress in recent years.
Generally, there’s been positive results from the Seychelles tourism markets in Africa, America, the Middle and Asia in spite of a 17 percent decrease in arrival figures from China which is largely attributed to the lack of direct flights this year. To date, the total number of holidaymakers that have disembarked in Seychelles stands at 159,659, representing a 21 percent increase compared to last year, already positioning the island nation to record once again a deep double digit tourism upswing in 2017.
Added information about the archipelago is available via www.seychelles.travel
