The
tourism delegation from the Seychelles led
by Alain St.Ange, the island’s Minister responsible for Tourism and
Culture met with official tourism bodies of Ireland.
Minister
St.Ange was accompanied on his working visit to Ireland by Elsia
Grandcourt, the CEO of the SeychellesTourism Board and by
Flavien Joubert, the Principal of the Seychelles Tourism
Academy.
The
first series of meeting were at Shannon where
the Seychelles Delegation met with Mr Philip Smyth,
the Directorof
the Shannon College of Hospitality
Management. This was followed by meetings in Dublin
with Minister Leo Varadkar, the Irish Minister responsible for
Transport, Tourism and Sports and a follow-up meeting with Minister
Michael Ring, the Minister of State responsible for Tourism and
Sports.
Minister
Alain St.Ange and his delegation then met with Shane Clarke,
the Director of Corporate Services & Policy
and Peter Nash,
the Head of Strategy Development & Insights at Tourism Ireland,
the All Ireland body established under the Belfast Peace Agreement
and charged with marketing of the island of Ireland on behalf of the
Republic of Ireland and the Northern
Ireland Administration. Then it was on to the
Irish Tourist Industry Confederation, the body representing all the
sectoral bodies in the tourism industry enabling tourism to speak
with the one voice. Here theSeychelles Delegation met with
Eamonn McKeon, the Chief Executive of the ITIC. This meeting was
followed by one with Tim Fenn, the Chief Executive of the Irish
Hotels Federation, the representative body of the Irish Hotel
and Guest
House Industry.
The
last meeting for the Seychelles Delegation was with Shaun
Quinn, the Chief Executive and Aidan Pender, theDirector of
Strategic Planning for Failte Ireland, the Republic of Ireland
Development Authority. This is the responsible body in Ireland for
the development of tourism infrastructure, products and services,
including HR and quality
control.
“The
different meetings were an ideal opportunity for us to exchange ideas
and for us to be informed on the how Ireland manages its tourism
industry. We have found the meetings to be very interesting, and we
have embarked on different avenues of cooperation. The first such
proposal will be for an expert in social media who is today managing
this for Ireland to come to Seychelles on a short term
attachment to work with the Seychelles Tourism
Board and help us re-strategize our setup for better results”
Minister St.Ange said.
Our
Celebrate Seychelles Events Department is also considering
greening out little big band , our Clock Tower for St. Patrick Day
and in so doing have it join the list of world icons that mark this
Irish Day. This proposal is today with the Tourism Ireland
as is the idea of Guinness and Ireland to be present at the annual
Carnaval International de Victoria.
Minister
St.Ange and his delegation were invited to visit some of the tourism
sights of Ireland including the world famous Cliffs of Moher, the
Bunratty Folk Park where the delegation were also invited to
a Medieval Banquet
Dinner and Dublin’s major tourist
attraction,
the Guinness Storehouse.
