To determine the development status of our islands the tourism department is in the process of conducting a carrying capacity study for the islands of Mahé and Praslin.
The outcome of this study will help the government in taking the necessary and informed decisions on all tourism projects in the future with the aim of achieving sustainable development and safeguarding environmental protection of the islands.
Iris Richter, who is undertaking this carrying capacity study, is an independent consultant who has more than 20 years experience in planning management and land use.
She has also been involved in past carrying capacity studies of La Digue, Cerf Island and North Mahé specifically the district of Bel Ombre, Beau Vallon and Glacis.
Mrs Richter has already undertaken a first mission in February until March which comprised meetings with different ministries and tourism stakeholders.
She has conducted fieldwork and data collection on Praslin but she was unable to reach certain establishments so she is back in Seychelles to complete her study for Praslin and start collecting data on Eastern Mahé.
Mrs Richter said the main part of this study is visiting all the establishments, mapping them, finding the hotspots for tourism, speaking with the owners or managers of the establishments to find out what is going on and what are the problems they face.
The carrying capacity study for Mahé and Praslin is expected to be completed by the end of September 2016.
The principal secretary for tourism Anne Lafortune said the government wants to conduct a carrying capacity study for tourism to be able to know if it will be possible to keep developing large tourism establishments in the future.
“We’ve reached a stage where we need to evaluate how much more tourism development we can take in but meanwhile we have an existing moratorium where the developments of large hotels are prohibited,” she said.
She noted that the moratorium does not apply to outer islands as they still have plenty space for touristic development, so the moratorium applies to Mahé, Praslin, La Digue and the inner islands.
She said preliminary studies have shown that certain areas have been saturated with too many large developments such as the northern region.
“Now we will be looking at other areas to find out where we can concentrate to make developments which will be sustainable without affecting the environment,” she said.
Source : Seychelles NATION