Tourism (MoM) arrivals in Seychelles grew by 9% from January to June 2019
Figures
recorded by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed a remarkable growth
in the tourism arrivals in June 2019 this year.
Indeed
25,761 visitors stamped their passports at the immigration desks at the
Seychelles International Airports for a vacation on our shores.
An
increase considered as exceptional for this period of the year, as it is the
first time that Seychelles has ever recorded over 25,000 visitors during this
month.
Figures
presented by the NBS, confirmed that visitor’s arrivals from the beginning of
the year to end of June 2019 are equivalents to 187,108. This represents a
significant increase of 9% when compared to the same period in 2018 as the
number of visitors recorded for that period amounted to 172,099 visitors.
Germany
remains at the top of the best five performing markets for the month of June
2019 as 4,087 German tourists disembarked on our shores; the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) follows with a number of 3,119 visitors.
While
the 2,110 visitors were recorded to have landed from United Kingdom (UK). In
fourth and fifth position are France and Italy with a number of 1,855 and 1,794
tourists, respectively.
As
projected by the Strategic Planning and Market Intelligence department of the
Seychelles Tourism Board (STB), the targets set- at 3 to 4%- by the STB for
this year will be exceeded.
Speaking
at a press briefing at Botanical House earlier today, Mrs. Sherin Francis STB
Chief Executive mentioned her satisfaction to note that 2019 would also be a
year of great performance for the industry.
“It is remarkable to see that Seychelles
remains a prime destination and that for the past few years the destination has
performed quite well throughout the year. June is always a slow month and we
had anticipated that this year it might be the same despite our active work to
bring more tourist in the country. The current figures from NBS comforts us in
knowing we managed to hit a record for the month of June,” said Mrs.
Francis.
Parallel
to the increase in visitor’s arrivals is the growth in the yields, according to
the most recent figures from the CBS (figures referred to are for Jan-May
2019), the yields recorded from tourism related activities have shown that the
destination is 6% ahead of last year. The CBS estimated that the tourism earnings
from January to May 2019 were approximately 3.5 Billion SCR compared to only
3.3 Billion SCR during the same period in 2018.
In
terms of travel agency bookings for the coming months, an increase in the
numbers of forward bookings have been estimated.
According
to the forward bookings, data received from the travel agencies it is noted
that for the next 6 months of the year,
for the top 5 markets a forecast 3.9% increase in regards to bookings made
this time last year.
Major
improvements in travel agency bookings for some key markets including France,
Russia, UK, Italy and China have been noted.
