By Chris Bradley
The Seychelles is continuing to do well, by seeing further increases in the visitors arriving on their shores. Many people are impressed by the way that the islands have managed to continue to attract visitors and they have actually been recognised internationally as a huge success story. The latest figures, which were released in the Statistical Bulletin produced by the Seychelles National Bureau of Statistics, showed that there was a 12% increase for the week ending April 8th 2012 compared with the same time last year.
This is very surprising because the main tourist markets for the islands have always been France and Italy and the direct flights by Air Seychelles between these countries and the islands have been discontinued, meaning that it is not so easy for visitors to get to the destination.
The Seychelles Tourist Board did work on attracting more markets and it has been working. They have seen massive increases from some major countries including a 95% increase in visitors from China, 71% from Austria, 54% from Russia, 42% from UAE, 38% from Germany and 32% from Switzerland. Alain St Ange a minister for the board explained that the work of the Tourism Board has really paid off in that they have managed to increase visitors significantly. They have made a partnership between the public and private sector for the first time and it seems that this has been part of the significant improvement in tourism which, it is hoped, will continue.
