Seychelles is set to hit a significant milestone by the end of the year, expecting to have surpassed its goal of receiving more than 300 000 visitors throughout 2022. This was announced at the National Assembly by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism, Sylvestre Radegonde, on Friday (November 25).
With 296 422 visitor arrivals from January to the end of week 46 (November 20), that left only 3 578 more visitors to hit a record for the year. This translates to estimated tourism earnings of US$823m (R14,1bn) this year so far.
Estimates from Tourism Seychelles anticipate closing the year with 330 000 visitors, just 50 000 fewer arrivals than was recorded in 2019.
Making the top of the arrival list from January 2022 to date, Seychelles has seen the constant progression of its traditional source markets, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom in first, second and fourth places with 41 332, 40 933, and 19 693 visitors respectively. Russia remains steady as its third-best source market, with 26 408 visitors recorded.
“We are very pleased to see that the investment made by Tourism Seychelles and the local tourism industry has not been in vain. The numbers are showing today that we have slowly reclaimed our industry,” said the Principal Secretary of Tourism, Sherin Francis.
“With international tourism back in full swing, we are enhancing our efforts to increase our visibility in all our markets. We are reinforcing our content creation efforts, which will support our digital marketing strategies. On the traditional marketing side, we are keeping our international trade partners engaged with various projects and increasing our participation at international events,” added Bernadette Willemin, DG of Destination Marketing Willemin.
