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Seychelles Tourism Board office in Frankfurt kicks off 2018 with participation in key tourism fairs in Germany and Austria

Seychelles Tourism Board office in Frankfurt kicks off 2018 with participation in key tourism fairs in Germany and Austria

Still fired up about Germany’s performance in 2017, ending the year as Seychelles’ leading market, the Seychelles Tourism Board Office (STB) in Frankfurt kicked off its destination marketing drive for 2018 with the CMT fair in Stuttgart.

The 2018 CMT fair, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, was held from January 13 to 21.

The STB team led by its Director for Germany, Austria & Switzerland, Edith Hunzinger, was joined by trade partners comprising of Mira Schermann and crew of 3 from SeyVillas, as well as Daniel Barone and Jonathan Löffel from VPM Bestsail.

The Seychelles team enjoyed another successful participation at the event with the island nation’s stand, proving to be as popular as in previous years.

The annual CMT fair is the traditional opening event of the tourism year in Germany. Viewed as one of the world’s largest consumer show for tourism and leisure, it is the place for holidaymakers to find information and offers about the latest travel trends, new destinations, among others.

The 2018 edition did not fail to record an excellent turn out, with over 265,000 visitors and 2,192 exhibitors. The fairgrounds were fully booked and very crowded over the entire nine-day run, which was bookended, as always, by two weekends.

A survey conducted by the organizers showed that over a quarter of the visitors had travelled more than 100 km to attend the CMT fair in the affluent Southwestern part of Germany and 95 percent of the visitors have indicated their intention to return to the event in 2019.

Prior to the Stuttgart event, the STB Director for Germany, Austria & Switzerland, Edith Hunzinger was in Austria where she mounted the Seychelles stand at the Ferien Messe Vienna International tourism fair – Austria’s leading trade fair.

Seychelles was among some 80 countries at the fair, which was held from January 11 to 14, 2018, recording over 153,000 visitors and 800 exhibitors.

This was the first time Seychelles was participating with its own stand at the Ferien Messe Vienna International tourism fair.

Set in a small but cozy area, the island nation’s representatives were kept busy with a host of potential visitors that came to the stand displaying much interest in knowing more about the destination and its products. Numerous enquiries and booking from tour operators were also recorded.

STB’s Senior Marketing Executive, Natacha Servina, accompanied by Derek Savy representing Le Duc de Praslin, La Digue Island Lodge and Val Mer Resort as well as Britta Krug representing the 3 Hilton properties in Seychelles – Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort & Spa, DoubleTree by Hilton Seychelles – Allamanda Resort & Spa and Hilton Seychelles Labriz Resort & Spa were all pleased with the outcome.

The participation will surely provide a boost to the recently launched once-per-week non-stop flights from Austria to Seychelles.

Mrs. Hunzinger said: “Austrian Airlines has conducted an amazing advertising campaign to launch the first historical nonstop flight from Vienna to the Seychelles, which started on 25th October 2017. I am confident that there is a huge potential for Seychelles and sooner or later the figures from Austria will at least match that of Switzerland, thus Austria can be added as a major market among the destination’s list of Top 10 source markets!”

The Seychelles Tourism Board office in Frankfurt is already planning to take part in next year’s edition of the Ferien Messe Vienna International tourism fair, set for January 10 to 13, 2019.

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