ROUTES AFRICA REGISTRATIONS A SUCCESS BEYOND MEASURE
As the clock ticks down towards this Sundays start of the much awaited Routes Africa continental aviation meeting have details been shared from Victoria about the registration of delegates, reeling in a record number of airlines, airports, aviation businesses and even registered journalists all credited to both the location Seychelles Another World and the determined yet smart effort by the archipelagos tourism gurus to add value to the meeting.
Alongside and following the aviation conference will the ICTP hold its first ever Annual Meeting and Academy Meeting, then to be followed by SADCs RETOSA Board meeting of tourism ministers from the Southern African trade block and the Vanilla Island meeting of tourism ministers and their tourist board top executives.
This clever alignment of added extra attractions has generated the unprecedented magnetism for the Routes Africa meeting with a dozen official tourism delegations coming to Victoria and permitting additional bilateral and multilateral face to face encounters, something none of the previous African Routes meetings was ever able to generate to that extent.
Participating airlines are now confirmed to be 32, though in some cases both the passenger and cargo sections will attend, while some 37 airports and airport authorities have also confirmed their presence in the Seychelles. In addition were 7 tourism ministries and / or tourist boards registered for official attendance while on the suppliers side an astonishing 13 will attend the conference, including such heavyweights as Bombardiers Aerospace and Lufthansa Consulting.
Gulf giants Emirates, their cousins FlyDubai and Qatar Airways are joining Air Seychelles as host airline with their partner Etihad, alongside such continental aviation leaders like Kenya Airways, Ethiopian, South African Airways, RwandAir, Kulula, LAM, ARIK, Air Mauritius, Astral, Mango, Zambezi Airlines and NASAir, while from further abroad Turkish will be at Routes Africa 2012 alongside United Airlines, Iberia and Vueling.
Host hotel and conference venue on Mahe is the Kempinski Seychelles Resort, a befitting venue for sure providing 5 star hospitality to delegates from across much of the world.
A lesson learned for sure for the organizers and others seeking venues for their meetings, one can never fail to bring MICE business to the Seychelles as the location alone, besides a totally committed tourism ministry and tourist board will do all they can to facilitate organizers and use their global PR and marketing juggernaut to trumpet the event to the world. Watch this space.
