Welcome to Edition #27 of Saint Ange Tourism 2018, Monday 9th July 2018
The Editorial this week highlights:-
a. Saint Ange Consultancy programmed travel schedules.
b. Appointed on the Steering Committee of the “African Tourism Board” Association.
c. Visitor arrival numbers in Seychelles.
d. Etihad group CEO says restructuring likely to involve job cuts. Air Seychelles future plans ?.
e. Mexico’s new president has no security: ‘The people will protect me’.
f. I will be a panellist for Routes Africa 2018 (14th – 18th July).
Saint Ange Consultancy Programmed Travel Schedules
Last week, I reported on invitations received by Saint Ange Consultancy, which resulted in programmed travel schedules set to take me to five African Countries in the months of June to August. Today, I can confirm that in June and early July, I was with the private sector trade in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, and was also the guest of Congo’s former Minister Elvis Mutiri wa Bashara in Kinshasa and in Goma in the DRC. This coming week I will be in Accra in Ghana as a panelist for Routes Africa 2018, and later in the month and in early August I will be in Kenya and in South Africa for private sector trade missions.
As Africa moves to rewrite its own narrative and claim back ‘Brand Africa’, I am happy to report that I have been appointed on the Steering Committee of the “African Tourism Board” Association. This body is moving forward with the concept “Where Africa becomes one destination”. Major announcements will be made in the coming weeks as the Global Tourism Industry moves in to work with Africa through the “African Tourism Board” body.
On the Seychelles front, many letters from the local tourism industry raised the recently published visitor arrival figures. An extract from one of these letters principally coming from smaller establishments on Mahe and Praslin said:- “I am sure your are looking closely at the numbers. Tourism is down badly from projections made for the year. The reality of US$100 per barrel oil is not far off, as Trump turns on trade war tactics with Europe. Anxiety will keep potential travelers near home, long haul partners will drop us one by one because we cannot keep their flights load factor on par…. because it is the dark cloud now looming over us. The impact of the World Cup as argued by STB is a red herring, a scape goat if you will. 2% in Seychelles could just as well really be -2%”.
