More cruises for the active Vanilla Islands’group while the African mainland ports sleep

COSTA CRUISES COMMITS TO INCREASE STOPOVERS ON THE VANILLA ISLANDS

(Posted 26th April 2015)

The presence this week of Costa Cruise’ Executive Vice President Norbert Stiekema in the Seychelles, when not only the annual Carnival Festival is being celebrated but also one of the Costa cruiseliners was on port call last week, was used to hold a full scale ministerial meeting of the Vanilla Island group.

Several tourism ministers from fellow Vanilla islands were present and joined by the Seychelles’ ministers for tourism and culture, Alain St. Ange and his cabinet colleague responsible for transport Joel Morgan. Also at hand was Pascal Viroleau, CEO of the Vanilla Island organization and further representatives from the Seychelles including from the port authority.

While the various islands appear to have agreed on lowering the cost of port calls has Costa in turn signaled a tripling of cruises in this part of the Indian Ocean, calling on several of the islands as part of an itinerary while also signaling longer port calls to allow for better economic benefits for the islands visited.

The Seychelles delegation also reportedly floated a suggestion that a smaller cruiseship be based more or less permanently in Port Victoria to allow for cruises across the archipelago’s 115 islands including visits to the Aldabra Atoll, a remnant of the garden of Eden when it comes to its rich biodiversity and pristine conservation status. The meeting also spent considerable agenda time on the concept of ‘Fly – Cruise’ which would allow cruise passengers to fly into one of the participating islands, like Mahe, start their cruise from Port Victoria and then leave from the airport of another island after being on board for one or several cruise segments.

Cruise tourism is only now returning to fuller levels of activity as during the height of the piracy which swept the Indian Ocean from bases in lawless Somalia most cruise companies withdrew their ships for safety reasons, leaving the islands struggling with their infrastructure built up for this purpose remaining idle.

The agreements reached during the meeting Friday in the Seychelles are also hugely important for the African mainland where governments and tourist boards are still finding it difficult to engage with their island partners and formulate a common position which could see added port calls also for Mombasa, Dar es Salaam or further down the coast into Mozambique.

Meanwhile though was it once again proven that the conducive atmosphere for meetings of this kind in the Seychelles yield results for not just the archipelago but also for fellow Vanilla Island partners Reunion, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, the Comoros and the Maldives which while further out in the Indian Ocean has joined the group for greater visibility and joint marketing initiatives.