Seychelles is taking the lead in promoting regional tourism and may host a travel and tourism mart with the member states of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) next year to offer the industry a different boost.
This is available in the wake of the enthusiastic support that Seychelles and other Vanilla Islands member states of Reunion, Comoros, Mauritius, Mayotte provided to Madagascar for its International Tourism Trade Fair held on the end of May.
Seychelles Minister for Tourism and Culture Alain St.Ange inside the company of Derek Savy, the Director of selling for the Vanilla Islands, met with the IOR-ARC Secretary General, KV ,recently in Mauritius where the nineteen-nation group is headquartered.
The IOR-ARC confirmed that the tourism ministers of its member states would come together within the tourism mart in Seychelles in 2014 to debate tips to strengthen and expand the region’s tourism industry. This mart cannot only open new avenues for the region but it surely will further strengthen and solidify the Vanilla Islands organization in its quest to generate more visibility and growth in tourism.
India, Bangladesh, Australia, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Seychelles are members of the IOR-ARC established in Mauritius in 1997. China, Japan, Egypt, France, and Britain have the status of debate partners within the group.
The importance of the Indian Ocean, the world’s third largest, as a trade corridor and effort highway is being seen as undeniable because it provides passage to half the international container ships and greater than 70 percent of crude and oil shipments. And the chances for tourism growth and expansion inside the region are massive.
The association is conducting a tourism feasibility study within the region of which the second one phase will commence soon. This study can be vital for the correct planning and strategy formulation, geared toward mapping out the longer term development of this vital sector in the region.
During the meeting, the Secretary General and the Minister also discussed strengthening cooperation between the IOR-ARC and the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands Regional Organization, a gaggle currently headed by Minister St.Ange who was re-elected as its President for a second term throughout the annual meeting in Madagascar on June 1 following a joint motion presented by La Reunion, Madagascar, Comoros, and Mayotte for the Seychelles Minister answerable for Tourism and Culture to think about leading the organization for a second year.