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Tourist inflow to Seychelles has recorded the highest since the pandemic, Seychelles tourism department expressed immense satisfaction with this resurgence and stated that the numbers recorded in the calendar year surpassed their expectations.
The figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics for the week ending January 1 show that the year-to-date total of arrivals is 334,552 which represents an increase of 81 percent compared to the same period in 2021.
The Principal Secretary for Tourism, Sherin Francis stated that this is quite an accomplishment for the country and the number is even better than our second prediction of around 330,000 after meeting the laid-out target for the calendar year.
The figures show that 10,266 visitors arrived in Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, in the last week of 2022.
Seychelles’ tourism industry, the top contributor to its economy, was greatly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, where like many countries, it had to close its borders. In the last couple of years, the country has been rebuilding this industry through additional marketing campaigns.
Though the past year was marred with many uncertainties, inflow from Russia which was one of the most prominent recorded an all-time low due to the Russian-Ukraine war. But certain events favoured – when war broke out western European countries started to relax their COVID travel restrictions, which made all the difference. Thus, cancellations from Russia and Ukraine were filled in by western European tourists.
In 2022, Europe continued to dominate the visitor arrival figures with the latest numbers showing that Germany is the leading market with 44,772 visitors, followed by France with 44,503 and Russia in third place with 31,180.
To note that with the winter schedule, Seychelles has seen the return of Condor and Aeroflot, which are supporting the recovery of the destination. It is also getting extra charter flights from Israel.
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The other regions Seychelles has managed to attract the most visitors from for the year 2022 were countries like Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and India, which combined have brought in 51,668 visitors.
Seychelles’ tourism anticipates doing better in terms of tourism earnings during the current year.
