[World Travel Awards 2015] Seychelles Tourism and Air Seychelles clinch Indian Ocean’s top trophies

The Seychelles archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, which offers visitors powder-white beaches surrounded by crystal-clear turquoise oceans and lush tropical vegetation, has been voted the Leading Indian Ocean Destination at this year’s World Travel Awards.

This was announced Saturday night at the Kempinski Resort at Baie Lazare, located in in the south of the Seychelles main island of Mahé which hosted the 22nd annual World Travel Awards Africa and Indian Ocean Gala Ceremony.

The event, which was attended by over 100 industry leaders from some 20 countries across Africa and the Indian Ocean and covered by international press including global French television network TV5 Monde, also saw the Seychelles Tourism Board, the national airline of the Seychelles and the Seychelles’ main port of Victoria take home top accolades.

After the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) was awarded the Indian Ocean’s Leading Tourist Board award, the STB’s Chief Executive, Sherin Naiken, told members of the press that she had not actually expected the STB to clinch the award, which in previous years had gone to other tourist boards in the region.

“I can say that I am really proud and this award we should dedicate it to Seychelles,” said Naiken, adding that promoting the tourism industry is not a responsibility held solely by STB but that it was a collaborative effort of all stakeholders, including the tourism ministry and STB staff working in the tourism offices in all corners of the world promoting Seychelles.

“…It signifies the hard work they are doing and I believe the award will serve as a source of encouragement for them to work harder to continue promoting Seychelles.”

Saturday was also a big night for the Seychelles national airline as Air Seychelles managed to clinch the titles of leading airline in the Indian Ocean in terms of its Business Class service as well as its cabin crew service for the second consecutive year.

To put the cherry on the cake, Air Seychelles also took home the most coveted award for the regional airline business - the Indian Ocean Leading Airline, which was won by Air Mauritius last year.

The airline accolades have been described as testament of the dedication and hard work of the Air Seychelles staff supported by all stakeholders in Seychelles.

“It makes me as the CEO feel extremely humble just to see how amazing the Seychellois within my team have worked and it’s their commitment, it’s their pride, their motivation and the want to succeed that got us this,” an extremely happy Manoj Papa, Air Seychelles’ CEO, told the press in an interview directly after collecting the awards.

“It’s amazing, it’s a great night… we’ve come a long way - there’s been a lot of challenges in our way but we’ve brought it home for you.”

The Seychelles national airline, which was first established in 1977 and adopted its present name in 1978, was wholly owned by the Seychelles government until 2012 when it entered into a strategic partnership with Etihad Airways. The UAE carrier bought a 40 percent equity stake, investing $45 million in the airline with the aim of turning the company around after several prior years of losses.

Sharing the success with the Air Seychelles staff last night, the Chairman of Air Seychelles, Joel Morgan, who is also the minister responsible for transport, said the awards showed the work done over the last three years to turn the company around.

“It shows our small country’s capabilities to go out there in the world and show that we can deliver a service and run an airline at a standard that we can even compete and come out as the winner ahead of other airlines in the Indian ocean region,” Morgan told SNA.

 

Like the national airline, the Seychelles Port of Victoria also retained awards won last year as the Indian Ocean's Leading Cruise Port and the Indian Ocean's Leading Cruise Destination

The Chief Executive Officer of the Seychelles Port Authority, Lieutenant Colonel Andre Ciseau, described the tourism industry as a collaborative effort between local, regional and international stakeholders which he said the Port Authority has taken into account in ensuring that it delivers on the vision to maintain the competitiveness of Port Victoria.

“We have worked hard during the year and ensured that we evaluate the strengths and weaknesses while we continue to evolve to ensure that we maintain our competitive advantage,” said Ciseau.

www.seychellesnewsagency.com