SEYCHELLES AND REUNION STANDS EXPECT TO BE CROWD PULLERS IN PARIS
(Posted 20th September 2016)
In the morning will the 2016 edition of France’s most important tourism trade fair, Top Resa, aka IFTM, open its doors and Vanilla Islands Seychelles and Reunion are on site to showcase their destination in their most important core market.
From the 20th to the 23rd September will the Seychelles Tourism industry be present with a 23 member delegation representing 12 companies: Air Seychelles, 7°South Ltd (DMC), Alphonse Island Seychelles, Berjaya Resort Seychelles, Bird Island, Coral Strand Smart Choice Hotel, Creole Travel Services (DMC), Kempinski Seychelles Resort, Masons Travel (DMC), Maia Luxury Resort & Spa, Savoy Resort & Spa and The H Resort Beau Vallon Beach Seychelles. Minister Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture, Sherin Francis, the CEO of the island’s Tourism Board will also be joining Bernadette Willemin, the Tourism Board’s Director for Europe and her Team at this year’s IFTM Top Resa.
The Seychelles stand is expected to be busy with meetings organised with the French travel trade, press and media, all eager to meet the partners most of whom have travelled from Seychelles showing the importance and interest of the market for the local Seychelles industry.
France is still the number one market for Seychelles with 3 direct flights a week operated by the national airline Air Seychelles and the various airlines flying daily via their respective hubs in Middle East and Africa. The national airline’s Chairman of the Board, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Transport Joel Morgan, in fact recently indicated that additional nonstop flights to Paris are on the drawing board, which would give tourism a major boost.
Last year 37,356 French nationals travelled to the island destination. According to the Seychelles National Statistics Bureau 28,926 people from France arrived in Seychelles during the first 8 months of the year. This represents an increase of 17% from the previous year, which shows that Seychelles is still very much considered as a favourite and safe destination.
So far the trend indicates that the French market is set to maintain its number 1 position for tourism arrivals for Seychelles.
The Seychelles delegation can be found at stand number B055 pavilion 7.2
Meanwhile is Reunion going to be represented at the tourism fair with 70 delegation members from 34 companies, representing all aspects of tourism on the French Indian Ocean island. Among those are the island’s home airline Air Austral, leading hotels and resorts and service providers including several DMC’s.
One of the highlights of Reunion’s presence at Top Resa will be the launch of the new web brand identity for Reunion, mentioned here in a separate article yesterday.
https://atcnews.org/2016/09/18/reunion-launches-new-web-brand-identity/
2016 is definitely the year of the island of Reunion as the destination celebrates several major events: the annular eclipse of 01st September 2016, two exceptionally visible eruptions of the island’s active volcano, the Piton de la Fournaise and notably the sixth anniversary of the listing of its Pitons, cirques and ramparts as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Also exhibiting at Top Resa will be the Vanilla Island Organization which represents, besides Reunion and Seychelles, other lesser known Indian Ocean islands like Mayotte and Comoros.
