Photo Credit: AfricaNewsAnalysis/Niels Bartels – From left to right: Christine Vel and Saida Mussard, Tourism Seychelles
From 2nd – 4th October 2024 the 14th edition of Magical Kenya Travel Expo (MKTE) took place at Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi. It was a platform for B2B meetings between leading African products and top-producing global buyers. It was a good opportunity for the exhibitors to generate new business and to interact with international trade. The event attracted more than 5,000 delegates who could as well participate in seminars and market presentations in order to gain valuable information about the newest trends.
ANA travel editor Niels Bartels was on site and spoke with some exhibibitors about their marketing strategy and whether they were happy with the outcome of the event.
Seychelles participated in the“ Magical Kenya Travel Expo (MKTE)“. Their delegation highlighted the country’s diverses tourist attractions and pointed out that Seychelles is not just a beach destination. We spoke with Christine Vel who is “ Director South Africa & Other Africa“ of Tourism Seychelles.
AfricaNewsAnalysis: Why did you decide to exhibit at Magical Kenya Travel Expo ?
Christine Vel: We have been exhibiting at this trade fair before COVID. We think it is important because East Africa is very close to the Seychelles, it takes only 2,5- 4 hours to travel to us.
We feel there is the need to let people know about our destination and also to train and teach them. Most of Africa is a safari destination but we are a beach destination. It’s always important to teach people and let them know about the destination. We want to create awareness.
AfricaNewsAnalysis: Who is your target group? To whom do you want to reach out during this event?
Christine Vel: We are happy to reach out to anybody because it is an international fair. Anybody who has clients who are able to travel to a destination like Seychelles. We have seen a lot of African agents and Americans as well which are the big markets for us.
AfricaNewsAnalysis: People always talk about the Seychelles as a luxury destination. Is that correct or can you also offer something to clients with a smaller budget?
Christine Vel: We have everything for everyone and every budget. We have different categories. We have luxurious five star accommodation. Out of 800 we have about 700 guest houses and smaller hotels in Seychelles. We have more for the middle class and people looking for smaller accommodation. You can have anything from up to USD 80. There’s everything for everyone, we encourage everyone to travel to the Seychelles.
AfricaNewsAnalysis: What do you present at the travel expo?
Chrstine Vel: It’s just a little bit general information about the destination because a lot of people know Seychelles as a beach destination. We can’t move away from the beach. The beach will always be there. But we want to teach them. Seychelles has more than just the beach. We are 115 islands in total. We encourage island hopping. We have islands where you can find little baby sea turtles and you can swim with them. They are used to people, they come close to you and you can take a selfie with them. There are islands which are reserved for birds, it’s bird sanctuaries. Those are islands which are nearly car free where bicycles are your main mode of transportation. There are a few taxis so that you can get to your accommodation. We really wanted to move away from just being a sun and sea destination., also to show all these cultural experiences that we have in Seychelles as well.
AfricaNewsAnalysis: Today is the last day of the travel expo. How happy are you with the outcome?
Christine Vel: We are very happy. Since COVID, this is the third one that we participated in. And the great thing is: We have seen different faces. We have seen some familiar faces but the great thing is: when you see the familiar faces from last year or the year before, they will tell you: „thanks to you, I actually made a booking to the Seychelles. One year ago I had no clue about anything about the Seychelles but I was able to do one booking. And one booking leads to many many more bookings. And it leads to word of mouth. It leads to agents talking to other agents. It leads to agents talking to their clients who were probably going to another destination but not within the Indian Ocean. This year we have had so many new faces. I think we are looking at more business from this side of the world but from other sides of the world as well.
AfricaNewsAnalysis: How important is the German market for you ? What do the Germans like about your destination ?
Christine Vel: The Germans are a very, very important market. Germany has been number one since the last few years for us as a market in tourism arrival and it keeps continuing. Condor has re-started flights to the Seychelles or they will re-start very, very soon. We also get a lot of Germans that come in on cruise ships so they get to discover the island for a few days. Some of them will stop in the Seychelles and then spend a week in the Seychelles after they have been on a cruise ship for a few weeks.
Germans are people who love to be out in nature. In Seychelles, we have some amazing nature. It is very green and we have some mountainous islands. They go walking up in the mountains. We have some interesting trails that can take from 45 minutes up to four hours. Our most challenging trail takes about 4 hours to go up and 4 hours to go down which is a full day of visit. They will usually take a local guide with them who will tell them everything about the plants and the animals on the way and make it very interesting. But in general we always have German clients all around on all different islands because they do island hopping as well. It’s been a very good market and we are happy and we hope it will continue as well.
AfricaNewsAnalysis: Thank you for this interview