Seychelles Tourism hosts appreciation cocktail for South African partners
The Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) office in South Africa together with Air Seychelles and Constance Hotels have teamed up to sponsor the winners of ‘The Wedding Bashers’. This announcement was made during an appreciation cocktail hosted by the STB at the Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg in October.
The appreciation cocktail brought together over 50 trade, suppliers and media partners, who have all supported the destination in one way or another during 2018. The STB’s Chief Executive, Mrs. Sherin Francis travelled to South Africa for the event, which also saw the participation of Seychelles’ High Commissioner to South Africa, Mrs. Marie-Antoinette Rose-Quatre, Air Seychelles’ Chief Executive, Mr. Remco Althuis, and Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Charles Johnson, as well as STB’s Regional Director for the Africa and America, Mr. David Germain.
Speaking during the appreciation event, Mrs. Francis firstly thanked her two-man team who oversee the South African market and the African region – notably Mr. Germain and Ms. Lena Hoareau as the Director – for their continuous hard work and efforts to develop the market.
She then thanked all partners present for their continued support towards destination Seychelles and said they are helping to bring Seychelles closer to the South African travelers.
“Today is merely a small token of our appreciation. We thank you for your efforts, support and dedication towards the destination. In particular, your renewed commitment every single day as we continue to bring the Seychelles closer to the South African travelers,” she said.
Mrs. Francis also thanked Air Seychelles for the work being carried out on the market and said that the ‘hand in hand’ partnership goes a long way in helping to further promote and making Seychelles accessible to the South Africans.
To all partners, she said: “We give you our commitment to further work in partnership with you in 2019. We hope you will continue to journey with us to grow visitor arrivals from this market. We look forward to a more profitable year in 2019.”
The guests also had an opportunity to witness the announcement that Seychelles is the partner destination of ‘The Wedding Bashers’ after the inaugural season in 2017.
The series, which started airing on DSTV’s Mnet channel on October 14, will feature 22 unique South African weddings over 12 episodes.
During the show, four judges, known as bashers, attend each of the weddings and then discreetly rate the big day from the fashion, décor, food to entertainment. At the end of the series, the newly-weds with the highest score are declared the winners and win combined prizes to the tune of R500,000.
The biggest individual prize to take home is the honeymoon trip to the destination of the show – which this year is Seychelles. The honeymoon prize to the Seychelles is worth over R80,000.
Before the event, STB and Seychelles’ national airline hosted a joint press conference. STB talked about its plans to grow arrival figures from South Africa especially since the numbers have contracted since the beginning of the year, and the overall strategies to ensure all its markets are performing and bringing in the numbers to Seychelles.
The media was able to learn more about the Air Seychelles’ plans for the South African market, its additional services in December this year and for Easter 2019, additional rotations between Johannesburg and Seychelles.
source: eTN
