| Thursday, February 08, 2007 |
| Seychelles for slow growth of tourism to protect environment |
Seychelles, the tiny, picturesque island-nation in the Indian Ocean, is encouraging tourism in a big way to earn the badly needed foreign exchange, but not at the cost of environment.
The country favours a slow growth of the tourism industry to protect environment for the sustainable growth of its economy.
With white sand beaches, blue sky and beautiful tropical scenery, Seychelles attracts hundreds of visitors every day, bringing a huge amount of hard currency to the country.
Latest official figures show that Seychelles -- with a land area of just 455 square kilometres, scattered over 115 islands -- received in 2006 a record number of 140,627 tourists, who brought in about US $ 200 million. This happened despite the threat of chikungunya epidemic and high prices for hotels and other accommodation.
The boost in Seychelles tourism had led to the opening up of the local market to other airlines such as Emirates and Qatar airways in 2005, a relatively stable exchange rate between euro and the rupee (Seychelles' currency), and the construction of new and luxury establishments. All this helped Seychelles discard its former reputation of providing three-star service at five-star prices.
The island-nation is used to receiving more visitors than its population of 82,000.
The Seychelles archipelago, which covers a vast tract of the western Indian Ocean, has an exclusive economic zone of over 1.3 square kilometres.
Seychelles Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Patrick Pillay says the 2006 figure was near the peak the tiny nation could offer to foreign visitors because of concerns over environmental degradation.
Seychelles is famed for its sound environmental protection policies and its land under protection is over 50 percent of its total area -- the highest proportion of protected land in the world.
So, with limitations on further development of tourism, the Seychelles government's policy is to attract what Patrick Pillay calls high-level tourists, that is, the rich visitors around the world.
Advocating eco-tourism, Seychelles President James Michel had once described that natural environment as the butter and bread for Seychelles and environment degradation meant less visitors and fewer hard currency.
Though tuna replaced tourism as Seychelles' leading foreign exchange earner in 2000, development of the tourism sector have a far greater impact on the economy because of its direct links to a range of service activities.
The opening of the international airport in 1971 laid the foundations for future expansion of the tourism industry in Seychelles, and the number of visitors reached 130,865 in 1996, compared to just 771in 1967.Labels: Travel |
| posted by a correspondent @ 11:17 PM |
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