Minister Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture was yesterday live on Antenne Reunion TV on their main 12h30 News program.
The Seychelles Minister who was in Reunion Island for the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands Ministerial Meeting was being interviewed on the main Reunion Island News by popular journalist Laura Chateau. The interviewed concentrated on the progression of the Vanilla islands and how it was benefitting the islands also showed promotional shots of the six Indian Ocean Vanilla islands (Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion, Madagascar, Comoros and Mayotte).
The Seychelles and Mauritius are often perceived as benefiting from the regional tourism grouping and Minister St.Ange spent time making the point that the Reunionais can also benefit by doing what Seychelles did and that is to claim back their tourism industry . “The Government of Reunion, like the one in Seychelles are but facilitators and it is the people of our islands who need to move to benefit from their tourism industry” the Seychelles Minister said.
Minister Alain St.Ange also spoke about the growth of the cruise ship business through the work undertaken by the Vanilla Islands. “In 2014 we have in our region from our cruise ship business 14094 passengers and this grew in 2015 to 29059 passengers. In 2016 we can already confirm that Costa Cruses alone will be at 18000 passengers and this as we work to tim up the Fred Olsen liners and also Sirlversea cruises” the Seychelles Minister said.
The Minister went on to spell out as he was live on air that Reunion Island was benefitting more than the Reunionais realised. “25% of the tourists coming to Reunion today are through combinations with other islands of the Indian Ocean. This represents over 100,000 tourists” Minister Alain St.Ange said as he confirmed that Tour Operators in the region’s tourism source markets were now programming the vanilla islands with several possible combinations.