Representatives of eight of Seychelles premier tourist destinations, accompanied by staff from Air Seychelles and the Seychelles Tourism and Marketing Association, recently took a "luxury roadshow" to four British venues.

The roadshow, which called in at London, Manchester, Chester and Portsmouth and which ran from May 19 to 22, was organised as a means of educating UK based travel agents, tour operators and product staff, to the variety of tourism products on offer in Seychelles.

Additionally the event was used as an occasion for presenting certificates to the British travel agents who have recently completed module four of their Seychelles Smart training programme, as well as to award the top performer, Albee Yeend, the head of Marketing at Steppes Africa, with her prize of a trip to Seychelles.

The establishments which joined Air Seychelles and STMA for the luxury roadshow were Anonyme Resort, Cousine Island Resort, Denis Island, Frégate Island, Lémuria Resort, Hotel L'Archipel, Le Meridien Seychelles and Sainte Anne Resort all of which took the opportunity to show the diversity of the islands and the niche activities they have on offer.

On her return to Seychelles from the UK, Ms Jenni Harris-Beggs, director of Marketing Operations for the STMA, explained that the trip had been the first such roadshow to the UK since the formation of the STMA and said that it had been very enthusiastically received both by those who attended from the UK and the representatives of the local companies.

The main events had been held during the day time, but the roadshow delegates had also taken part in three cocktail evenings and three "breakfast workshops" all of which had provided additional opportunities to meet with the people who sell Seychelles to the British public.

Over the course of the trip the delegates had met with over 150 representatives of the British travel industry and many of the companies had undertaken one to one sessions with individual tour operators who specialise in selling their destination.

Ms Harris-Beggs said that, "STMA recognises that there are rapid and radical changes in tourism and safety is now a paramount factor for tourism, so the safety of Seychelles was highlighted throughout the roadshow."

Ms Harris-Beggs also said that STMA intends to make this an annual event and the association will be working alongside it's roadshow partners to ascertain which elements can be changed and improved before the exercise is carried out again next year.

The success of the event will be seen by the participating resorts who will find out what effect the event had through looking at the number of tourists that the UK tour operators they work alongside send to Seychelles.

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