KATHY MASON A SEYCHELLOIS TOURISM PIONEER
Every once in a while I come across some outstanding individual who has left her or his mark on the tourism industry of their respective countries, and yesterday my friend Alain St. Ange, himself a success story extraordinaire with the impact he has made on marketing the Seychelles and putting his beloved country into the global spotlight, sent me the story of Kathy Mason. She founded Masons Travel 39 years ago in 1972 with a single boat and when the jet age dawned over the archipelago with the opening of the Mahe International Airport in 1973, she was needless to say at hand to take advantage of a growing stream of visitors to the islands. Clearly, Kathy is now part of the Seychelles tourism history and was involved hands on to write this history with endless determination and a steely will to succeed, at times in the face of serious adversity. La Tribune of France has just dedicated a feature on her career and I hasten to copy this here, as a tribute to a Seychellois woman who knew what she wanted and knew how to get it:
