When Seychelles reopened its borders to the world in March but excluded South African travellers, it said the decision had been made due to pressure from Britain, which was concerned about Britons being infected in Seychelles by South African tourists carrying the ‘SA variant’ (Beta variant) of COVID-19.
But, five months later, Seychelles is on the UK’s ‘red list’. It’s a no-go destination - Britons are strongly discouraged from going to the archipelago and on their return to the UK, they have to quarantine for 10 days in a designated hotel under supervision – a very expensive and inconvenient deterrent.
Since March, South Africa’s vaccination programme has also taken off, the numbers have died down after the third wave and the Beta variant has been superseded by the Delta variant – which is the most prominent in the UK right now. South Africans may now travel to Maldives, and from October 1, to Mauritius – probably Seychelles biggest competitor in the upper sections of the SA market. So, hopes were raised that South African traffic to the pristine group of islands might resume.
But, despite all the above factors, Seychelles has not budged from its position regarding South African travellers.
Following Mauritius’s announcement that it will fully reopen its borders to vaccinated tourists in October, Air Seychelles has announced that it will resume twice-weekly scheduled flights between Seychelles and Mauritius on October 3, after an 18-month absence from the route. Asked if the airline would also be reintroducing its Johannesburg-Mahé flights to allow South Africans to access both Seychelles and Mauritius, the airline said a restart date for this route was still unknown.
“Our reopening in March has been very successful so far and we have already welcomed 68 000 visitors to the island with no reported incidents,” said regional director, Africa and the Americas for Seychelles Tourism Board, David Germain.
“We eagerly await an announcement for the island to reopen to South Africans and Brazilians, both of which have traditionally been large source markets for the Seychelles, but unfortunately this decision lies with the Ministry of Health and our hands are tied. There has been no indication on when the current status quo is expected to change.”
Johannesburg-Mahé has always been one of Air Seychelles’ major routes but the airline remains unable to reintroduce it due to the ongoing travel ban on South Africa. It does conduct flights from Johannesburg to Malé in the Maldives, via Mahé, where it makes a brief technical stop.
Travel News caught up with chief commercial officer of Air Seychelles, Charles Johnson, to find out whether the airline had any expectations of a restart date on the JNB route and if competitor Air Mauritius’s announcement that it would restart flights to Johannesburg in October was likely to persuade the Seychelles government to restart HM’s Johannesburg-Mahé route sooner rather than later. Charles responded saying that the Johannesburg-Mahé restart date was still unknown.
