UNWTO’S ‘COMMISSION FOR AFRICA’ MINISTERIAL MEETING SET FOR SEYCHELLES IN 2015
(Posted 02nd May 2014)
The just concluded 56th UNWTO Commission for Africa meeting in Angola’s capital city of Luanda has unanimously selected the Seychelles as their venue for the 2015 meeting, no doubt due to the fact that Alain St. Ange, Minister for Tourism and Culture of the Seychelles, is also one of the members of the Executive Committee of UNWTO and has been an outspoken promoter for travel to Africa, travel within Africa and for cooperation between African countries through bilateral and multilateral agreements, aimed to improve connectivity and benefit from their respective experiences and development status.
The meeting in 2015 will take place alongside the archipelago’s most widely recognized annual calendar event, the Carnival International de Victoria in April next year and a record number of African tourism ministers and UNWTO personnel are expected to make their way to the main island of Mahe to discuss progress made since the Luanda meeting.
Twenty African tourism ministers were at the meeting of the UNWTO Commission For Africa (CAF) Meeting in Angola which was chaired by Mr. Walter Mzembi, the Minister of Hospitality & Tourism of Zimbabwe. Present also at the meeting was Dr. Taleb Rifai, the UNWTO Secretary General and Elsia Grandcourt, the Director for Africa at the UNWTO.
Minister Alain St. Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture said on the occasion when the announcement was made, that this was great for the Indian Ocean Region and for the Seychelles. ‘It will be a great opportunity to showcase the work by Seychelles to use culture and in so doing putting the people of the islands in the centre of tourism industry’s development of the islands. The carnival in Seychelles remains unique because it is the only carnival that continues to attract every important carnival of the world to parade together and alongside cultural troupes from the Community of Nations. The UNWTO Commission For Africa (CAF) Ministerial Meeting in April 2015 will be an opportunity for African Ministers to appreciate the importance for their country to be present and use the carnival as a visibility platform for their own tourism industry’.
Minister St.Ange said that he was going to encourage Ministers from Africa to be accompanied by their own cultural troupe when they fly to Seychelles for the 2015 UNWTO Commission For Africa (CAF) Ministerial Meeting because they will all be at the Carnival Official Opening Ceremony, so that every country represented at the Carnival has the opportunity to showcase their own culture and art.
(Seen here are Dr. Taleb Rifai, UNWTO Secretary General and Alain St. Ange, Minister for Tourism and Culture of the Seychelles)
The decision to bring the meeting to the Seychelles next year will be an added boost for the Carnival Festival as all Ministers present will be attending the opening show and the parade of the participating troupes, and more than ever before are expected to perform in the streets of Victoria, making sure that the 5th edition of the Carnival will truly be the best and most attended ever. Seychelles, truly Another World.
