Emirates Airline has extended its global marketing agreement with the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB), renewing its support to the island destination.
Emirates’ Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations for Africa, Orhan Abbas, and STB’s Chief Executive, Sherin Francis, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Monday, April 23, 2018.
The signing was done on the sidelines of the 2018 Arabian Travel Market (ATM), Middle East’s largest travel trade event, held in Dubai.
Mr. Abbas said: “The Seychelles is a very important destination to Emirates. We will develop a series of joint activities together with the Seychelles Tourism Board aiming to increase the visibility of the destination with our clients and we are confident that positive results will be seen in the short term.”
The agreement provides for the joint undertaking, by Emirates and STB, of various marketing activities, such as attendance of tourism trade shows and fairs, trade familiarization trips, product presentations and workshops, among others.
“We look forward to strengthen our support to the Seychelles. Our success on the route to this amazing Indian Ocean destination is the result of relentless efforts by Emirates and the Seychelles Tourism Board and we truly believe that this partnership is beneficial to both parties,” Mr. Abbas added.
For her part, Mrs. Francis said STB is very happy to be renewing its partnership with Emirates Airline.
“STB recognizes the pivotal role the Emirates airline has played in developing the Seychelles tourism industry over the past decade. Through the signing of the MOU, the destination is again reiterating its commitment and supports toward the airline to ensure it keeps on serving the destination,” she added.
The Middle East region, particularly the United Arab Emirates, is an important emerging market for Seychelles. Out of 349,861 tourists who visited Seychelles in 2017, a total of 28,209 came from the United Arab Emirates, which ended last year as the Seychelles’ third leading market.
Emirates, which started operations in Seychelles in 2005, currently offers 14 weekly flights to the island destination, connection Seychelles twice daily to Dubai.
In June 2015, the airline increased its overall capacity to the Indian Ocean archipelago by 1,722 seats per week, when it switched from the Airbus 330-200 used on one of the two daily services to a larger Boeing 777-300.
