The cruise ship season is in full swing! Last week was yet another eventful one for the cruise season, with three ships calling at our port. First was the arrival of Silver Spirit on Monday December 18 at 7am with 398 passengers on board. The 196-metre long liner made its way from the Maldives and had Mombasa, Kenya as its next port of call. Interestingly, the cruise ship chose Port Victoria to undertake a major passenger exchange of 306 disembarkations and 370 embarkations. In any such circumstances, the area on the berth, near the vessel, was extremely busy with the passenger movements, luggage handlings and other related logistical activities. However, the appointed agency and destination management company (DMC) worked in close collaboration with the Seychelles Ports Authority (SPA) to deliver an effective, efficient and smooth service. According to the SPA, encouraging more cruise ships to undertake major passenger exchange at Port Victoria, especially those staying for more than one day, has always been part of the marketing strategy for cruise tourism. For this particular call, Silver Spirit created business opportunities not only for the port but also for the hotels and the various airlines serving Seychelles. The passenger exchange of this call entailed that almost 700 seats were up for grabs by the airlines operating in and out of Seychelles. Similarly, a high number of hotel rooms were required for the group of passengers landing prior to the arrival of the ship and for those leaving Seychelles after its departure. Silver Spirit set sail from Port Victoria the same day at 4.30pm.
The second cruise liner of the week was Boudicca which also arrived on Monday December 18 at 8am from Port Louis, Mauritius. However, her schedule was to visit Praslin before making her way to Mahé in the evening. Despite cruise ships remaining at anchorage when visiting Praslin and La Digue, SPA ensures that all the movements of tender vessels carrying passengers and crew between the anchored vessel and the jetty are done in a well-organised manner. Usually, advanced preparations are made by the pier master and the jetty officials to ensure that all necessary logistics are in place, to achieve a smooth flow of operation throughout. Cruise ships visiting Praslin and La Digue offer the residents, the business community and entrepreneurs of the islands a first-hand opportunity to promote and sell their products and services to the visitors. It is encouraging to see cruise ships opting to visit islands other than Mahé when scheduling their visit to Seychelles. This further promotes Seychelles as a preferred cruise destination of the world, says SPA chief executive, Colonel Andre Ciseau. He adds that the more we become innovative in our business approach in creating new opportunities for the cruise visitors to spend on our products and services, their presence (cruise ships) become more rewarding for both the tourism and maritime sectors of our economy. Boudicca arrived at Mahé quay at 9pm (the same day) and departed the next day, Tuesday December 19 at 4pm, bound for the Comoros.
The third cruise ship to call Port Victoria last week was AIDA Aura which arrived on Tuesday December 19 at 6.30am from Mauritius, with 496 crew members and 1,148 passengers mostly German nationals. Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine Minister Maurice Loustau-Lalanne took the opportunity to pay a courtesy visit on board AIDA Aura. The minister was accompanied by tourism principal secretary Anne Lafortune and Colonel Ciseau. Captain Sven Laudan welcomed Minister Loustau-Lalanne and his delegation on board and expressed his sheer appreciation towards all the support he has received throughout his visits to Seychelles so far. He said the passengers and crew were indeed very happy to be spending three days in this lovely part of the world, with plenty of excursions to choose from. This season, AIDA Aura is making ten (10) scheduled round trips to Seychelles, Mauritius and Reunion. The minister said he has visited AIDA Aura considering that it is the first time the cruise brand has included Seychelles on its itinerary.
This ship is owned by AIDA Cruises, one of 11 brands operated by one of the world s largest cruise lines, the Carnival Group and at 208 metres long AIDA Aura is one of the smallest vessels of the AIDA brand. Captain Laudan confirmed that AIDA will be sending a bigger vessel to Seychelles for the 2018-2019 cruise season. AIDA Aura departed Port Victoria on Thursday December 21 at 6pm.
Colonel Ciseau said a total of 42 cruise ship calls are expected this season, with some 42,700 visitors to Seychelles. This, according to him, represents an increase of almost 50% over last year when 28 port calls were recorded, as well as a 55% increase in cruise visitors to our shores. The work we have done together with the Association of Ports of the Indian Ocean Islands (APIOI), various stakeholders, partners and the local authorities, in addition to improved maritime security in the region, is paying dividends. We have invested a lot of efforts in growing the business and we will continue to work with other countries in the region for joint marketing. Now that we are also jointly promoting the Cruise Africa strategy, this would be of added advantage, said Colonel Ciseau. The Cruise Africa Brand, was initiated and discussed in Seychelles during the Port Management Association of Eastern & Southern Africa (PMAESA) meeting held earlier this year in July, with the theme 'The role of integrated tourism as a method to revive cruise tourism', and was officially registered under the PMAESA. The brand was recently presented by PMAESA s consultant for cruise strategy, former Tourism Minister Alain St Ange during a two-day conference and workshop held in Livingstone, Zambia (November 22-23, 2017). Mr St Ange made a resounding impact on the audience when deliberating on the importance to develop the approach of integrated tourism sector for Africa. The presentation was followed by the handing over of the registration certificate of the Cruise Africa brand by Col. Ciseau to the chairman of the board of PMAESA, Bisey Uirab. PMAESA is now expected to manage the task of developing the brand through regional partnership mechanisms and in close collaboration with other regional organisations, for the promotion of cruise ships for the Africa region. This process will also entail the joint participation in the various tourism trade fairs across the world and working in parallel with many established tourism entities. As part of the Cruise Africa strategy we are also working to encourage super yachts to visit the region in parallel with cruise ship calls, and together with the PMAESA we are developing a yacht lottery as part of this promotional effort, which will allow the winning yacht to visit member countries of the PMAESA without paying the applicable port dues, Col. Ciseau said. The lottery should be ready to go on sale by the end of next year.
The Seychelles cruise ship season normally lasts from October to late April.