With Chinese visitors eager to resume traveling once more, Tourism Seychelles organized its first significant sales call meetings in China.
The meetings took place from March 20 to 31, 2023, in collaboration with its business partners from Raffles and Four Seasons.
The delegation visited key travel agencies, tour operators, and OTAs in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chongqing, and Shanghai, making their presence felt in the Chinese market.
The team was comprised of Tourism Seychelles Director for China, Mr. Jean-Luc Lai Lam; Senior Marketing Executive, Mr. Sen Yu; Assistant Director of Sales from Raffles Seychelles, Ms. Christine Ibanez; and Senior Director of Sales from Four Seasons Mahe and Four Seasons Desroches, Ms. Tinaz Wadia, who specifically made the trip to China for the occasion.
Apart from catching up with Chinese partners, the sales calls, meetings, and training sessions proved to be the ideal setting for the team to learn about the changes in the market over the past several years.
“The market is eager to travel.”
“With a more cultural, nature, outdoor, educational and family-oriented tourism trend than previously,” added Mr. Lai-Lam. “This fits in well with the direction that Seychelles is headed by focusing on cultural and eco-tourism.”
The meetings also highlighted the main categories of bookings and requests Seychelles has received from the market since the start of the year, with many high-end travelers searching for properties like Four Seasons and Raffles.
About Seychelles
Seychelles lies northeast of Madagascar, an archipelago of 115 islands with roughly 98,000 citizens. Seychelles is a melting pot of many cultures which have commingled and coexisted since the first settlement of the islands in 1770. The three main inhabited islands are Mahé, Praslin and La Digue and the official languages are English, French and Seychellois Creole.
The islands reflect Seychelles’ grand diversity, like a great family, both large and small, each one with its own distinct character and personality. There are 115 islands scattered across 1,400,000 sq km of ocean with the islands falling into 2 categories: 41 “inner” granitic islands that form the backbone of Seychelles’ tourism offerings with their wide suite of services and amenities, most of which are readily accessible through a selection of day trips and excursions, and the remoter “outer” coral islands where at least an overnight stay is essential.
