The Seychelles group poses for a family photo at the ITB

Seychelles' delegation to the 2004 Berlin travel trade fair, the ITB, have returned home having used the prestigious tourism event to launch a host of new marketing tools.

A large Seychelles contingent, led by Minister for Tourism and Transport, Mr Joseph Belmont, attended the German fair, which has grown in standing amongst the international travel industry to equal that of the London and Deauville meetings.

Industry players said the timing of the fair made the launch of new materials and information especially beneficial for industry plans for the 2004/2005 travel season.

New Consumer Brochure

ITB provided the back drop to the launch of the new edition of the Seychelles Tourism Marketing Authority's (STMA) consumer brochure, first introduced in September 2003.

Described by STMA as an, "elegant, magazine-type format that is both eye-catching and easy to read," the new version of the brochure contains extensive information on the range of tourism products available in Seychelles.

Despite being only seven months old, the first version of the brochure was designed to be regularly updated, reflecting changes in the destination.

An STMA press release says that regular changes to the consumer brochure will enable it to provide, "the latest information on developments and improvements in the arena of niche markets, accommodation and new products, as well as providing important contact details and useful tit-bits of information."

Release of 2005 Seasonality Charts

The ITB was also the setting for the release of Air Seychelles' data on the seasonal variations of in bound visitor numbers.

The release of the information was intended to facilitate the coordination of discounted holiday packages by holiday companies.

STMA said that the document will be, "the basis for discussions between local trade representatives and tour operators looking to plan promotions and special offers during the 2004-2005 season."

www.seychelles.com

The third high profile Seychelles launch to take place at the ITB was the introduction of the new German language STMA website.

Found at www.seychelles.com/ the German site follows on from the November 2002 launch of the English language web pages.

The STMA press information states that, "given the increasing visitor numbers from Germany (the new site) will enable further development and penetration of this market and encourage higher visitor numbers."

It adds that it will, "allow the Seychelles tourism industry to reach those who were previously unable to fully utilise and understand the information available on the English websites due to the language barrier."

STMA's Manager of Destination Management Systems and Advertising, Ms Althea Hall said that translations of the site into German and French had begun last year, but that greater emphasis had been placed on the completion of the German site to coincide with the ITB.

The website for Seychelles' premier tourist supplier country–France–is still in the pipeline, though is expected to be up and running in the near future.

Plans for the introduction of a website for Italian visitors to Seychelles, currently the second largest national group, remain further off.

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