TREAD SOFTLY BECAUSE YOU MIGHT TREAD ON YOUR LIFELINE CALLED TOURISM
(Posted 21st December 2015)
Election observers and media representatives who had come to the formal announcement of the results of the Seychelles Presidential Elections last Friday night, held their combined breath when the runner up, one Wavel Ramkalawan, took to the stage. They were expecting a concession speech and instead got defiance and a thinly veiled threat of civil unrest, disguised under the repeated phrase of ‘there will be problems’.
Wavel termed the just concluded election an auction, appealing to the observers to take notice of his non-recognition of the results. Yet, those very election observers once again gave the election process a fairly clean bill of health, raising immediate questions as to the substance of the allegations made – similar to five years ago, when Wavel was absent when results were declared after he made a range of similar allegations, also at the time dismissed by observer groups.
A large number of comments were received by this correspondent, the majority calling the performance by Wavel a lack of statesmanship and a demonstration of overboiling emotions and frustration by what they called a ‘sore loser’ while a minority felt that Wavel had done the right thing to use the public platform to raise his objections, while President James Alix Michel was in the room and had to listen to him.
Several senior stakeholders from the archipelago’s tourism sector also sent in comments, understandably none wanting to go on record, considering the narrow outcome of the election and the prospect of being made the target of a mobbing campaign or worse. Every single one of them however voiced caution that the tempers of both winning Parti Lepep and losing SNP supporters must be calmed down and demonstrations kept to a minimum, to avoid hotheads taking advantage and causing incidents, which if picked up by the international media might have a swift impact on tourism and visitor arrivals.
The Seychelles just established another arrival record two weeks ago with numbers compared to 2014 up by nearly 20 percent and national airline Air Seychelles did likewise when welcoming its 500.000th passenger last week. Seychellois working in tourism have reached record numbers. The Seychelles Tourism Academy, a leading institution of tertiary learning in the hospitality and tourism sector in Africa, is teaching young Seychellois who now have the skills to embark on a career in the industry and begin to form a backbone for future managers, able to take on greater challenges. A deliberate policy by government to empower citizens wanting to join the industry as homegrown investors with B&B’s, guest houses, selfcatering establishments, small hotels and other enterprises like transporters or service providers has also seen more such businesses start up and take hold than ever before. The added visitor numbers and more available seats on flights into the Seychelles, provide the extra numbers from which such businesses make a living. However, any drop in arrival number would probably first and foremost impact on them without however sparing the bigger resorts either. Tourism is one of the most sensitive global businesses. The leading tour operators from the leading tourist originating countries are prone to react often prematurely, but reacting nevertheless, to rumours of trouble in a destination. Competitors of the Seychelles, who stood in awe and nearly helpless as the archipelago’s marketing juggernaut waltzed all over them, may be swift to exploit such a situation and reclaim those numbers which in recent years have made the Seychelles their destination of choice.
There are enough examples from the Indian Ocean region how the fallout of politics impacts on tourism, one over the past couple of years having been Madagascar. There was the fallout worst and the numbers dropped most sharply, leaving tourism operators reeling from the losses inflicted on them by political groups who took their issues into the streets. The past reputation of the Comoros too has by and large kept tourists off these islands to the detriment of the Comoros economy, which lacks the flow of both foreign direct investment in the sector and of tourist dollars spent there.
A very similar development to the Seychelles is found on Zanzibar, where a disputed election in October was annulled. The ‘Spice Island’s’ tourism operators presently keep fingers crossed and have prayers on their lips that political disagreements are not taken into the streets, which would no doubt wreck their season and the destination’s reputation, carefully built up over years but easily ruined in days should riots break out.
Recent reporting by this correspondent, a regular visitor to the island and keen observer of not just Seychelles politics but also those of other Indian Ocean islands like the Comoros, Mauritius and in particular Madagascar, about the two election rounds in the Seychelles, have already resulted in a number of Facebook connections disengaging, i.e. unfriending or even blocking for what at least one after contacting her on email termed ‘open bias’, while others made accusations of compromising journalistic standards in exchange of future invitations for all inclusive paid for trips. Two anonymous comments on my blog were altogether more sinister, suggesting someone will wait for me on my next return, but those were deleted before they went active, however with the originating IP addresses captured and kept, just in case.
Journalists are often subjected to abuse and accusations, at times justified and at times not and it goes along with one’s profession – yet opinions must be shared as must be observations and threats have never deterred me from voicing my opinion.
These are tough times for tourism with global terrorism once again raising its ugly head and the world economy far from being settled and on an upwards growth path. When tourism is the backbone of a country’s economy, as is the case in the Seychelles, a friend must be able to speak words of caution, not to load internal issues on to the scale of the global challenges the industry already faces. Any implied, leave alone real action of defiance is bound to provoke scenarios in the streets and a few Twitter, Instagram or Facebook uploads will more or less instantly make their way around the world, rousing the interest of global media searching for sensationalist stories. If the Seychelles tourism juggernaut is to continue, stepping back from the brink is the best way forward. So is dialogue as opposed to openly fueling conflict. It is here that a true statesman has the wellbeing of the entire country at heart, setting aside partisan political objectives. How this will play out in the Seychelles, time will tell but it is my hope that common sense will prevail and the paradise islands will remain just that.
Meanwhile, those who cut ties, several individuals in fact from the tourism industry but clearly in disagreement with the opinions voiced by this correspondent, should ask themselves what they have gained. Cutting out networking opportunities and access to a very widely read media platform, through eTN on a global basis and on my blog along the entire Eastern African seaboard and across the islands should not be ditched out of the spur of the moment in a flash of anger as seen since the end of the first election round earlier in December. It is reminiscent of one cutting the nose to spite the face but those are choices others made, probably aware of such consequences.
All the best to my true friends across the Seychelles archipelago and a peaceful Festive Season – A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2016.
