The Seychelles in particular and after the regime change in Mauritius, where a new tourism minister is now injecting a fresh breath of air into that island’s tourism industry, have always projected images of the Indian Ocean’s best destinations in travelers minds and the 2015 Travel and Tourism Report only confirms what was an open secret.

Read on to find out more about it. Meanwhile are two events in the Seychelles coming up, the Miss Seychelles contest and FetAfrica, a festival of African culture, art and music.

Travel & Tourism Report 2015 : Seychelles and Mauritius are on the podium writes the highly respected Cote Nord Magazine of Mauritius

The 15th May edition of the highly respected glossy magazine Cote Nord of Mauritius writes with pride the success by Seychelles and Mauritius to be welcomed on what they call the podium taking 2nd and 3rd place respectively in the Travel & Tourism Report 2015.
Cote Nord wrote:- Seychelles and Mauritius have been ranked at the second and third places of the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Competitiveness Report 2015 after South Africa in the Eastern and Southern Africa region. This ranking is based on the factors and policies that enable the sustainable development of the Travel & Tourism sector that will contribute to the development and competitiveness of the country
The report is published every two years and is based on 4 indexes: environment, Travel & Tourism policy and enabling, Infrastructure and natural & cultural resources split into 14 pillars (business environment, security, price competitiveness, air transport, etc). On the global level, out of 141 countries, Seychelles and Mauritius are ranked at the 54th place and 56th place respectively.

Speaking to the Mauritius Press on the 2015 World Economic Forum’s Travel & Competitiveness Report, Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture said that he appreciated the pride or nationalistic approach taken by the Mauritius press on seeing both Seychelles and Mauritius make it on the podium as they call it, after the two Vanilla Islands were ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Travel & Tourism Report 2015 after South Africa in the Eastern and Southern Africa Region as a whole. "I am joined by members of the Seychelles Tourism Trade and Business Community in general in following the Mauritius take on the matter. I see our glass that is half filled with water as being half full instead of it being half empty. This is because of my take on life. Others with a more negative approach will see the same glass as being half empty. But I have personally been discussing this latest rating by the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Competitiveness Report with many from our private sector members and that all feel good about it. This does not mean that as a country we do not have challenges to overcome, of course we do and this we shall overcome as an industry by remaining focused and by looking together for solutions with a positive approach. Today the Seychelles Government is meeting with the private sector in what is called the multi-sectorial meetings that is chaired by the Vice President of the country and attended by about half of the Cabinet of Ministers. The Business Community through the Chamber of Commerce & Industry is spearheading a "….Mon Sesel Sa" campaign to raise awareness for the need for better service, the Tourism Department of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture is meeting the tourism trade to move focus on the product side of things to look at cost on the one side and value for money on the other as hotel classification is being discussed, Air Seychelles has announced direct non-stop flights to Paris and to Beijing. I am saying this because a lot of our challenges are already being faced head-on" Minister St.Ange of the Seychelles said.