Seychelles news update – President Michel starts state visit to Australia

SEYCHELLES STATE VISIT TO AUSTRALIA GOES UNDERWAY

The Seychelles Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jean Paul Adam, and the CEO of the Seychelles Tourism Board, Alain St.Ange, jointly chaired a Press Conference in Melbourne on Sunday, August 21,  hours after their landing in Australia.

Minister Adam and his delegation are part of the Official State Visit in Australia by the President of the Republic of Seychelles, Mr James Michel. This will be the first State Visit by a Seychelles President in Australia, which results from an invitation made by the Govenor General of Australia.

President Michel is expected to land in Melbourne on today, on a visit that will also take him and his delegation to Canberra, Townsville and Brisbane. The Seychelles President’s delegation is made up of the Seychelles Minister of Foreign Affairs,  Jean Paul Adam, the CEO of the Seychelles Tourism Board, Alain St.Ange, the Vice Chancellor of the Seychelles University, Dr Rolph Payet and the Seychelles High Commissioner accredited to Australia, Dick Esparon. The Seychelles Delegation will be officially welcomed to Australia when they land in Canberra, and this will be done by the Governor General and by the Prime Minister.
Minister Adam addressed the Press gathered on the issue of climate change, sustainable development and coorperation between Australia and Seychelles; whereas, Alain St.Ange, the CEO of the Seychelles Tourism Board spoke about the avaliable option for Australians to visit the Seychelles after an African Safari, or a Shopping Break in Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Doha among many other twin center options, which includes the Volcano of La Reunion Island.

“Seychelles is the ideal extension after an African Safari. This is why we coined a year ago the slogan – From the Big Five, to the Best Five – which re-affirms that after photographing the big five of Africa, a beach holiday in Seychelles is the ideal extension as these islands stand just two and a half hours flight from the African mainland,” Mr Alain St.Ange said.

The Seychellois delegation also spoke about business opportunities that exist in Seychelles, the diversity of the Seychellois people and their islands among other unique selling points of these mid-ocean Creole islands.

“We have the best incentives for any investor, and this is safety and the assurance that the business community can repatriate their profits as and when they want because Seychelles has no exchange control at all,” said Mr St.Ange.

Seychelles is also appealing for Australia to showcase its own culture and its people at their island’s unique carnival of carnivals that takes place every March in Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles. The unique Aboriginal Culture and the Aboriginal people, the other cultures of Australia, inclusive of the rich Australian Country & Western Music were raised as options that could be considered to parade alongside the cultural groups from the rest of the world and with delegations of the known and the best carnivals of the world. 

 

Uganda conservation breaking news – Female rhino calf named ‘Malaika’

FEMALE RHINO NAMED ‘MALAIKA’

 

(Picture courtesy of Mrs. Angie Genade, ED / RFU and ZRS)

 

The Rhino Fund Uganda / Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary have over the weekend confirmed that the most recent ‘addition’ to the rhino family on the sanctuary, has now been named. Aptly, the Kiswahili name ‘Malaika’ was chosen, which translates into ‘angel’.

The sanctuary now holds 10 rhinos, and the two more female adults are also confirmed pregnant, with ‘Bella’ expected to have another calf as early as late September or early October while ‘Kori’ is due to have her second calf towards the end of the year.

Tourist visitors to Ziwa can presently see the males and both pregnant females, which still have their first born calves with them. Those however will be ‘chased off’, and going by experience rather abruptly and even harshly, just as soon as the females have delivered their newborn calves and will then eventually join their ‘brothers’ in roaming the sanctuary on their own until they reach maturity in a few years time.

Watch this space for upcoming announcements on the births of rhinos 11 and 12 on Ziwa just as soon as it happened. 

Kenya tourism news update – Mombasa Air Safari chairman appointed to KTB

CAPT. CLEAVE MAKES IT ON TO THE TOURIST BOARD

As a decades’ long acquaintance, from way back in the 1970’s, of Capt. John ‘Johnny’ Cleave it gives this correspondent particular pleasure to report here his appointment to the Kenya Tourist Board as a member of the board of directors. Capt. Cleave, Chairman of Mombasa Air Safari, was recently appointed to the Kenya Tourism Board by the Minister for Tourism Hon. Najib Balala.

Capt Cleave has, in the past, held numerous positions in Kenya’s key transport and tourism bodies including  serving as former Coast Chairman of the Kenya Air Operators Association, National Skal Kenya Chairman, Acting Chairman of the Kenya Association of Tour Operators, Kenya Tourism Federation Chairman of Ethics and Chairman of the coast tourism umbrella body, the Mombasa and Coast Tourist Association. For 5 years he also chaired the Moi International Airport IATA Airline Operators Committee. Recently he retired from the Board of the Kenya Hotel and Restaurant Authority, arguably to make ‘room’ for his new appointment to Kenya’s premier tourism promotion body.

Asked why he had accepted to serve in these various positions, being busy running Mombasa Air Safaris as it is, he said that it was based on a belief that advocacy through business member associations worked and that the private sector could bring beneficial change to the economy through dialogue with the appropriate government agencies. However, he went on to admit that this work is more difficult in Kenya as political corruption is deeply entrenched and public and private vested interests often act to avoid change and keep the status quo and in the process protect scams and ineffective processes. He noted that the tourism industry, if properly promoted, has the capacity to bring in added direct investment, drive up foreign exchange earnings, provide significant numbers of extra jobs and support poverty alleviation by contributing to GDP growth. However, he also clearly said the government needs to allocate more funds for international tourism marketing and to integrate the efforts of tourism and business marketing, probably under a common ‘Brand Kenya’ theme. The biggest single deterrent to raising tourism revenues in his opinion is however the country’s poor infrastructure. More water, cheaper power, better roads, railways, ports, the new south coast bypass and investment in airports and aerodromes are essential. This has to be combined with a respect for the law. Kenya cannot position itself as a country of large scale tourism and investment destination without the government first directly investing in the country itself. This, he admitted is beyond the brief of the Kenya Tourist Board, but he added that the goals of Kenya’s ‘Vision 2030’ have to be turned into realistic action plans by a Cabinet of hard working individuals dedicated to national development. Capt Cleave hopes courts succeed in convicting corrupt officials, that they be removed from office and that Kenyans will learn to vote for humble men and women who do not steal from them or make false promises and have the development of their country as their primary goal.

Adds this correspondent: Words of a true patriot. All the best Johnny in your new appointment.

Seychelles hospitality news update – Desroches Island Resort opens new ‘Escape Spa’

DESROCHES ISLAND RESORTS ADDS WORLD CLASS SPA

 

(Picture courtesy of STB sources)

The Descroches Island Resort, the ONLY resort on the Amirantes island of Descroches, has over the weekend officially launched a brand new Spa facility, described by a source from the archipelago as ‘World Class’.

Owned by the Island Development Company the resort, a luxury facility by any standards, offers the privacy of an entire island dedicated to its guests, and being over 200 kilometres from the main island of Mahe, is a guarantee for as exclusive a vacation as it possible comes. Access comes mainly by air, using a private charter by fixed wing or helicopter transport or the Air Seychelles domestic flight, on which the ‘outer islands’ depend to get their visitors on site and keep ‘paparazzi’ away from them.

The new ‘Escape Spa’ is set a distance away from the main resort complex and the accommodation units, which comprise 20 beach suites, 4 beach one bedroom beach villas, 23 luxurious four bedroom beach villas and a presidential villa with a staggering 750 square metres of space for the occupants.

At hand for the official launch was Alain St. Ange, representing the Seychelles Tourist Board and government at large, but also Glenn Savy, CEO of the Island Development Company, invited senior management of the archipelago’s leading DMC’s as well as members of the media covering the event.

Mr. St. Ange said at the opening about this latest facility: ‘Our visitors expect nothing less than the best and the [Desroches] island’s new spa complex is a great addition and a needed addition. Seychelles has diversity of islands as one of its unique selling points and to maximise on these unique selling points we need committed established operators to get our visitors out of their hotels to appreciate our natural assets. The experience of our visitors is enhanced when visitors are given the possibility to appreciate the diversity of our islands and it is so important for our hotel network to appreciate that unique aspect of Seychelles’.

The Seychelles, truly ‘Another World’ altogether!

 

African aviation news – AFRAA set for annual meeting in Marrakech

AFRAA CONFIRMS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING IN MARRAKECHt

African airlines will meet in Marrakech / Morocco between November 20^th to 22^nd this year for their AFRAA Annual General Assembly, hosted by Royal Air Maroc. Notably there will also be a meeting of key Chief Executive Officers of leading African airlines to discuss the increasing threats posed to the industry by foreign carriers being given traffic rights galore by their own governments and the alarming trend of ‘staff poaching’ in particular by Gulf based airlines which offer attractive terms and conditions to pilots, aircraft maintenance engineers and other highly qualified technical staff.

Alongside an exhibition is expected to bring together the leading aircraft and engine manufacturers, IT solution providers and aviation infrastructure developers, taking advantage of this unique annual gathering of Africa’s airlines. The theme of ‘Harnessing of Growth Opportunities Together’ is significant too as many airlines continue to advocate for a full implementation of the Yamoussoukro Agreement, which is aimed to break down restrictive practices, remove non tariff impediments and promote cooperation between airlines and African Union member countries to enhance air traffic across the continent by African airlines.

The details were released following the Executive Committee meeting of AFRAA in Nairobi recently when the status of preparations for the AGM were reviewed amongst a long list of other pressing issues on the agenda of AFRAA, which also includes the ongoing blacklisting of a large number of airlines from Africa by the European Union, something AFRAA has repeatedly claimed to be a measure of protectionism aimed to keep African airlines off profitable routes to and from key European airports.  

 

Ethiopian aviation news – ET to train another 48 pilot aspirants

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES TO TRAIN ANOTHER 48 PILOT ASPIRANTS

Information was received over the weekend from Addis Ababa that Ethiopian Airlines has partnered with a Canadian company to create a new pilot training programme, which is in its first phase aimed to turn out 24 first officers for the Bombardier Q 400 aircraft, a turboprop commuter plane used for domestic and short regional routes, and another 24 for the ‘workhorse’ B737-800 which serves many of ET’s regional and continental routes from their Addis Ababa hub.

The new ‘project’ will go underway at the beginning of Q4 this year at Ethiopian Airlines’ own training centre in Addis and is likely to run for about 1 ½ years before the first batch of successful graduates can join active flying duty as co-pilots.

Ethiopian’s Aviation Academy is one of three such international quality facilities known by this correspondent on the African continent, besides the training centres owned and operated by the national airlines of South Africa and Kenya, all aimed to train up much needed additional pilots to facilitate growing fleets, flight frequencies and destinations. Well done ET!

 

Uganda news update – RVR’s commuter services, altruism or eviction tactics

COMMUTER TRAINS – ALTRUISTIC SERVICE OR EVICTION TOOL

When news broke about the Ugandan arm of Rift Valley Railways intending to bring back commuter rail services into the capital city, the initial joy was soon joined by skepticism over the true motives of the proposed move.

Last week purported landowners commenced the clearing and fencing of land at the railways main engineering plant and workshop in Nalukolongo / Kampala, literally ambushing the corporation, claiming to have had land titles to the plots for over 30 years and finally intending to develop the plots. Along railway lines, especially in the city suburbs but also elsewhere along the functioning sections between the border with Kenya and the capital city Kampala, many literally defunct stations have been taken over by entrepreneurs conducting their business from these premises, and while called squatters by RVR, little if anything has been done to evict them.

The grand new strategy of offering ‘affordable commuter services into the city’, but reportedly also into Jinja, went along with immediate demands that the respective stretches of the rail network and the stations along the route be cleared of squatters and encroachers, so that passenger commuter services can be introduced. This measure however is probably the clearest indication that the promise of affordable mass transport only serves the ulterior motive of ‘clearing’ the railroad lines and stations well in advance of the now more likely upgrade from narrow gauge to standard gauge, for which RVR – following a protracted ownership struggle last year which eventually resulted in the Egyptian shareholders displacing the erstwhile company founders from South Africa – has finally secured funding to commence the modernization of the rolling stock, line repairs and thereafter line upgrades.

The announcement must therefore be taken with a grain of salt and the question be asked: altruism or a clever tactic to prompt evictions – time will tell, so watch this space.