The tourism and hospitality industry has joined forces to develop a "user friendly" cancellation policy which allows travellers to book their flights to Seychelles with complete confidence during this period of uncertainty in the Middle East.

Thus, in the event of a possible war, the majority of the Seychelles hotels have agreed that all cancellation charges on confirmed bookings be waived, as long as the same holiday is rebooked within nine months of the original booking.

This policy came into force last week and overseas tour operators and contracting partners are now liasing directly with their Seychelles partners to implement it.

According to the Seychelles Hospitality and Tourism Association, as well as the Seychelles Tourism Marketing Authority (STMA), Air Seychelles and local management companies, it is critical to "provide our visitors with maximum comfort to ensure that they are protected and not in any way compromised financially by events out of their control".

Speaking at his office at Bel Ombre yesterday morning, the chief executive of STMA, Mr Francis Savy, said the whole idea behind the policy was to ensure that Seychelles, as a destination, did not lose out on potential bookings.

In addition, he noted, it would help them to minimise last-minute bookings which the trade were currently experiencing, simply because people were afraid to book months or weeks ahead.

"We've ensured (with this mechanism) that the travellers do not lose their holidays or deposits but rather be in a position to rebook within nine months," he said.

Mr Savy described the nine-month period in which potential clients have to rebook their holidays to Seychelles as the duration of a touristic season.

"We've set a time frame because obviously it's an ongoing industry, in terms of rates and fluctuations, thus we need to be able to guarantee a package on the same basis as it was booked," he explained, adding: "so if it goes much more that nine months, it is difficult to guarantee the same package as our tourism season is more or less based on a nine-month period."

Meanwhile, Mr Savy also revealed that Air Seychelles had come up with a similar policy this week in which they are going to provide the same facility to their direct clients as well as those who book through other operators.

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