Island Style

It’s long been regarded as one of Africa’s luxury island destinations, and for good reason - stunning beaches, gorgeous views, great food, excellent service and stunning hotels that make the most of the beautiful surrounds. Now the Seychelles wants to be taken seriously as a MICE destination.

It ’s competitive, this tourism business, and as times get tougher and belts get tighter, those countries playing in this space and looking to bet their futures on this segment of the economy are going to have to evolve, adapt and ‘think outside the box’, if they are to get their hands on a sizeable chunk of what is a rapidly shrinking pie.

Specifically, those countries that rely heavily on tourism to survive and even prosper. The Seychelles is one such country. Yes, it is a country, but the reality is that it is a 115-island country, spanning an archipelago in the Indian Ocean approximately 1,500 kilometres east of mainland Africa.

Beautiful it is, with some of the most breathtaking beaches you’ll ever see. In fact, the locals are proud to tell you that beaches such as Anse Lazio (on Praslin), Anse Source d’Argent (La Digue) and Grande Anse (La Digue) are consistently up there when prizes for the best beaches in the world are handed out.

But beaches alone are not going to crack it and ensure that the Seychelles beats off its rivals in the ‘luxury island destination’ stakes, because there is plenty of competition out there. So much, in fact, that the Seychelles and six of its fellow Indian Ocean islands – Comoros, Reunion, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius and Mayotte – recognised the threat as global in 2010 and banded together that year to form the ‘Vanilla Islands’, pooling their marketing efforts.

Another challenge the Seychelles faces is that it ’s perceived as a premium travel destination, with a focus on five-star hotels and a luxury experience. You only need to look at the list of luxury international brands (see sidebar) to get a sense of the premium hotel offering.