With the focus firmly on the top end of the market, Seychelles' luxury travel operators took part in the recent International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) in Cannes, France.

The event, which ran from December 9 to 11, was attended for the second year running by Seychelles representatives, and attracted participants from 42 nations supporting large numbers of outbound tourists.

According to the Seychelles Tourism Marketing Authority (STMA), which led the Seychelles delegation, the event is dedicated to enabling specialist luxury travel trade buyers  to meet exclusively with world-wide luxury travel suppliers.

With 15 appointments per day having been made by participants prior of the meeting the Seychelles team spent a busy three days attempting to attract wealthy visitors to our shores.

Participating Seychelles companies included Denis Island, Hotel L’Archipel, Fregate Island, The Banyan Tree Seychelles and 7 Degrees South.

The 2003 ILTM saw a dramatic growth over 2002, with 75 per cent more companies attending the meeting.

According to STMA 577 companies participated in the event, attracting over 650 buyers.

Exhibition Director Mr David Hammond said that, "there is a great amount of luxury low-volume products with limited capacity who don’t usually have the opportunity to present themselves face to face in this market and (they) view this product as a marketing vehicle to penetrate a select sector of the tourism market normally not accessible to them."

The event also afforded local representatives with the opportunity of making contacts in markets not normally associated with Seychelles.

Representing Denis Island at the event, Mr Alain Ste. Ange explained that the meeting had been attended by large numbers of travel operators from the USA and the Arabian peninsula.

Describing the event as the most organised he has attended Mr Ste. Ange said that it was good for Seychelles to have been there and that making it an annual trip for all of the country's "flagship" establishments would be highly beneficial.

He pointed out that, though the number of visitors per contact made at the meeting was lower than at some events, when all were added together, the amount of business generated would be substantial.

However, Mr Ste. Ange warned against an over reliance upon the country's five star resorts, saying that they represent only 10 per cent of the rooms available, while two and three star properties make up the other 90 per cent.

Mr Ste Ange cautioned that giving too much prominence to the upper market destinations risks creating an image of Seychelles as being unaffordably expensive to many potential visitors.

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