Our Country... Our Future: Keeping tourism in Seychellois hands

The SNP’s vision for our tourism industry has always been that it should be led and managed by the private sector. In the same way as for our other industries and economic enterprises in general, the Government of the day needs to set policies in the national interest, but it is the private sector who should work for the growth and profitability of the industry. This should leave tourism promotion and marketing firmly in the hands of the private sector.

We have in the course of the past year, moved closer to this model. I hope that it will continue in the right direction. But today, there is another element that we need to stress. Tourism promotion and marketing should remain in Seychellois hands.

In recent years, this industry has been taken over by foreign investors. But even more significantly, it is in the process of passing over to one particular group of investors, namely companies from the Arabian Gulf area.

Gulf airlines now dominate in air travel to Seychelles and they are using this as a stepping stone into tourism hosting. They have been joined by other companies, which will mean that the group will control both access and hosting of visitors to our islands.

Our Party believes that the surge of investment from the Gulf states has exceeded healthy proportions already. So we are repeating the call for Seychellois interests to be preserved and protected. We believe that this industry should remain in the control of Seychellois and to have that they must have a real stake in its ownership.

It is true, foreign investors have the capacity to give us large luxurious hotels at one go. But that must not be the prime consideration. We have to think not only for today but for tomorrow and we must leave room for future enterprise. Seychellois must be given the opportunity to enter the industry, even if they have to start small. We should note with pride the medium-sized Seychellois hotels that exist today, which started as much smaller establishments some 20 years ago. Let us therefore leave room for what can come in the next 20 years.

One prime consideration is land. This is a very limited natural resource for us and it is where we have to be very careful. At the moment, we are hearing more reports of islands being earmarked for development. I am certain that our secondary islands will be the basis for the next stage of tourism development. Mahe, Praslin and La Digue are already too congested.

In fact, I believe that it was wrong over the past years to allow all these foreign-owned projects on our main islands instead of channeling some to the secondary islands. Putting up a tourism establishment on the main islands is comparatively easier that on the secondary islands and that is one more reason why more room should have been left for Seychellois on them.

But now we must shift attention to the other islands and we have to ensure that Seychellois have a stake in that. The philosophy in the past has been to look on our secondary islands as isolated outposts. We have to begin looking at them as integral parts of our territory and this includes preserving opportunities for Seychellois on them, particularly in tourism.

All this argues for protecting the Seychellois stake in tourism and keeping control of the industry in the hands of our own people. Nobody else will make the best of it for us.