(Posted 16th March 2024)
Senior Officials from the Ministry of Tourism of Mozambique boarded the Floating Residence “THE WORLD” as it was docked at Maputo to meet with Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles former Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine and now Head of his very own ‘Saint Ange Tourism Consultancy’ business.
Mr Nuno Fortes, the Investment Director at the National Tourism Board of Mozambique and Mrs Isabel Macie, the Ecotourism Specialist at the Ministry of Tourism of Mozambique, holder of a Masters in Ecotourism from James Cook University of Australia used the opportunity of the Port Call by “THE WORLD” at Maputo in Mozambique to discuss possible cooperation with St.Ange and his circle of consultants on matters touching training, MICE Market and opening the doors for young qualified Mozambicans to enter the world of tourism employment possibilities on Cruise Ships, Planes and Hotels in the four corners of the world. They also discussed manoeuvres options for increased visibility for Mozambique on direct B-to-B approaches and generally.
“We had a good meeting. Yes, we discussed Mozambique and its UNESCO World Heritage Site of Mozambique Island as THE WORLD would, in the coming days, be stopping at this unique small island that remains a very sought after destination for the discerning travellers, as well as matters on their agenda where the Mozambican Senior Tourism Officials wanted to table for discussions purposes”.
Alain St.Ange, as a tourism specialist, is recognised across Africa for having live and worked in tourism and brought the Seychelles tourism industry to new heights when he led the island’s Ministry of Tourism is currently recognised as a great speaker on the “World’s Speakers Circuit” network where he is invited and tours the world to address tourism, aviation, sustainable tourism amongst others. He also is now constantly invited as a guest speaker & lecturer of cruise ships. He continues to be seen in many international magazines and press cover his work.
Through his tourism consultancy he continues to work with Tourism Boards, Ministries of Tourism and the Private Sector Trade across our great continent of Africa and also in the ASEAN Block and has even been contracted by the World Bank to work alongside Ministers of Tourism in Africa to assist in the relook of their tourism industry.
Alain St.Ange is remembered for many things among which is the massive increase in visibility for his Seychelles islands which he succeeded through developing a positive relationship with the International Press and by turning the Seychelles into a cultural events-based tourism destination over and above show casing its key USPs: sun, sea and sand. He was succesful, and that translated in recognition by the world of tourism and the press fraternity, which in turn helped to deliver increased in visitor arrival numbers. St.Ange and his Team in Seychelles never missed an opportunity in those days to spell out that success was visibility, visibility and visibility because otherwise the destination would simply fade away. He is recognised for never leaving a stone unturned in that mission for Seychelles .
The Seychelles Tourism visibility drive in the era of St.Ange did get the islands recognised and become a household name. Seychelles even managed to enter the hit-parade of World Tourism and was analysed in the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competiveness Index where their Tourism Competiveness Index awarded in their 2013 Sub-Saharan Africa Table 7 showing the results for the sub-Saharan region with Seychelles entering the rankings for the first time at the top of the region, and 38th overall.
The news that The Travel & Tourism Competiveness Report 2013 had ranked Seychelles Number One in African Travel and Tourism Competiveness and Number 38 in the world surprised the world of tourism. This report assesses 140 economies worldwide under the theme “Reducing Barriers to Economic Growth and Job Creation”. The assessment is on the extent to which these economies are putting in place the factors and policies to make it attractive to develop the travel and tourism sector.
The World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competiveness Index wrote: – “The Sub-Saharan Africa Table 7 shows the results for the sub-Saharan region which sees Seychelles entering the rankings for the first time at the top of the region, and 38th overall. The importance of Travel & Tourism for the country’s economy is reflected in its top ranking for the prioritization of the industry, with the 2nd highest T & T expenditure – to – GDP ratio in the world and effective marketing and branding campaigns. These efforts are reinforced by a strong national affinity for Travel & Tourism (5th); good tourism infrastructure, especially in terms of available hotel rooms (6th); and good ground and air transport infrastructures, particular by regional standards (31st and 27th, respectively). These positive attributes somewhat make up for its relative lack of price competiveness (120th). Although the natural environment is now assessed as being in good condition, efforts to develop the industry in a sustainable way could be reinforced, for example by increasing marine and terrestrial protection, which would help to protect the many threatened species in the country (132nd). Mauritius loses its number one spot in the regional rankings, overtaken by the entry of the Seychelles this year, and is ranked 58th overall.
That was a massive show of recognition for Alain St.Ange and his Team in Seychelles.
These were the days when in Seychelles it was revealed that the International Monetary Fund (IMF), through Mrs Carol Baker, the Head of its Mission had hailed Seychelles as ‘outperforming’ many similar island destinations with year-to-date visitor arrival figures indicating and increase of over 20% for the first two months of 2013.
In April 2013 the OCR (Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations) Operations contacted St.Ange to include Seychelles in their exam paper. Mrs Simone van der Velden-Wouters, the Copyright Administrator Cambridge Assessment for OCR announced that the Seychelles Tourism Board logo and text taken was to appear in a forthcoming exam. Seychelles was seeing their efforts recognised at that level internationally. Their AS GCE APPLIED TRAVEL AND TOURISM Exam paper G723/01 International Travel of 22 May 2012 was on Seychelles as a Tourism Destination. This was an achievement that was rarely seen.
The 2015 Travel and Tourism Competiveness Index again gave Seychelles credit for its work in tourism. In the published World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism (T&T) Competitiveness Report for 2015, Seychelles scored highly across a range of indices to win second position in the Eastern and Southern Africa category behind only the recognized powerhouse of the continent, South Africa. The benchmarks employed in the report included prioritization of T&T, international openness, price competitiveness, environmental sustainability, air transport infrastructure, ground and port infrastructures, tourist service infrastructure, natural resources and cultural resources, and business travel. In the same report, high-scoring Seychelles won 2nd place, finding itself above 3rd placed Mauritius, 5th placed Kenya, 7th placed Tanzania, and 9th placed Zambia our of a total of 18 countries.
St.Ange brought culture into tourism and one of his biggest coups was his ability to start a ‘carnival of carnivals’ in one of the smallest capitals of the world and in so doing attract one of the largest press contingents following a world event. Sir James Mancham, the founding President of Seychelles is remembered to have written his monthly magazine VIOAS the merits of the annual Carnaval International de Victoria. Mancham said: “Against this backdrop of multuralism, diversity and the coming together of peoples, it is fitting that Seychelles should be, once again, the focal point of an annual ‘Carnaval des Carnavals’ – bringing representatives from the world’s carnivals to the islands to participate in three days of celebration… President Michel’s decision to give Alain St.Ange the go-ahead with Victoria Carnaval 2011, certainly reflect changes of views and a certain desire from both President Michel and St.Ange to go down in Seychelles history as men of ‘grandeur d’esprit’.”
Alain St.Ange and Seychelles had achieved to stage an event that went beyond politics where people from any and every nation was treated with the respect they deserve and could walk freely in the safety provided by the World’s Smallest Capital in an event coined the United Nations of Culture parade.
Alain St.Ange continues to unify the world of tourism through his work across Africa and the ASEAN Block.
