Tourism promotion and marketing is a partnership, therefore the active participation of the travel trade and the companies which operate within or on the periphery of the industry is very important to the success of Seychelles as a destination.

This was said Wednesday by the chief executive officer of the Seychelles Tourism Marketing Authority (STMA), Mr Francis Savy, when outlining the authority's strategies for the new year.

Mr Savy said that partners "are an integral part of the product which we market and we also need their help in funding and supporting marketing activities".

He explained that Seychelles had the opportunity to do much better in terms of visitor arrivals, considering that STMA was establishing a stronger and clearer market positioning for the destination as a brand name in key tourism markets.

He also noted that since Seychelles registered a record in arrivals last year, which was 132,246, it should maintain the momentum, grow existing business and further develop the untapped potential of new trade opportunities.

"Seychelles has the opportunity to do much better and this is exactly what we are going for this year," he said, adding however that much would depend on the international climate of events.

"I am confident that should all be well (since we have a good programme, good support and good partnership), we will do even better and attain our objectives".

Mr Savy then described 2003 as the year of sheer implementation since STMA had been able to strengthen its mechanism and put various tools in place to support their intensive marketing agenda. He added that the authority had come out with an image and mesagge that best projected the essence of the country's attributes and attractions to potential buyers and "we have given the travel trade in these markets fresh confidence to help us promote and sell Seychelles".

In short, he explained, STMA had put into place strong teams and structures that would respond efficiently and quickly to market changes and demands.

Mr Savy added that several attributes set Seychelles apart from other destinations and they were therefore key selling propositions in STMA's programmes.

Noting that they had a new target for arrivals in the next five years, Mr Savy revealed that the government intended to increase the figures to over 180,000 visitors, but more importantly, he added, increase yield (the revenue per tourist on a daily basis) also.

"Obviously we would be doing that by giving value for money and not just by increasing rates," he noted. Currently, the average spending rate is between 100 and 120 dollars per head per day. The government wants to increase that to about 150 dollars.

Mr Savy explained that the authority hoped to go about that in a number of ways, such as offering more in terms of shopping and excursions as well as having better hotels.

"The way we want to go forward on this is to create more added-value, that is once the client is here, he has much more to spend on than he would have previously," he said, noting that this initiative was driven by the government but very much implemented by the private sector in terms of what they did and offered.

At another level, Mr Savy said STMA would maintain its presence at most important trade fairs. Fairs are the main arenas where they work the travel trade, develop new programmes and assess the activities of competition.

In relation to that, he pointed out, they would continue to develop niche markets. For example, the growing popularity of Seychelles in the discerning and high-spending countries, such as the Scandinavia, needs to be nurtured and promoted actively.

Still according to the CEO, there was a lot of work to be done in Italy and Germany, two important markets for Seychelles but which for a variety of reasons are not performing to their full potential.

STMA feels these particular markets need a strong boost in order to reverse their downward trend and turn them into successful ones like France and U.K.

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