Interview with Vanilla Island Cooperation President, Seychelles Minister of Tourism and Culture, the Hon. Alain St. Ange Reproduced from the ‘Mauritius News on Sunday’

Seychelles Minister Alain St.Ange one-on- one interview with Mauritius News on Sunday.

Seychelles’ nomination as the first President of Vanilla Island organisation has generated interest in the Mauritius Press News on Sunday and made a sensational news angle.

The Seychelles Minister for Tourism and Culture Alain St. Ange, a strong supporter of the setting up and the success of the Vanilla Island concept was unanimously elected recently as President of the organisation during a meeting held in Seychelles on the 7th of July.

His nomination, a media gold mine, has been reported by regional media and sparked series of one- on ­one interviews.

The interview question and answer format published in Mauritius news on Sunday has nevertheless provided to its readers a valuable insight of the organisation and a glimpse of Minister St.Anges reactions at being the first president of the Vanilla Island organisation.

Minister St.Ange has used the catchy word honour to describe this position of leading a fully fledged organisation adding with a brilliant opening salvo that the Vanilla Island is a plus for the region {…..} and that only a strong region can strengthen the Indian Ocean islands tourism industry.

In a few straight forward and frequently asked questions, Minister St.Ange has spoken about Seychelles success in hosting Routes Africa forum 8th -10th July 2012 and in an open question on the challenges of Seychelles Tourism after the temporarily cessation of long haul air traffic, he has stressed on the need for Seychelles to keep on being innovative and pro-active in its strategic planning exercises and to work in close collaboration with destination and partners who like Seychelles are innovative in their approaches {…}

If Seychelles hailing of 100,000th visitors on its soil has made hard news in the media, The News on Sunday has run this story on a different angle, exploring the possibility that it could be a sign that Seychelles Tourism industry is taking a vertical mobility.

Adding flesh to the bones, Minister St.Ange said that Tourism is a very frickle industry and although we are encouraged by current visitor arrival number because it vindicates our strategies, we must nonetheless double our efforts to ensure that momentum is maintained.

On the issue of the Indian Ocean Island setting up a regional marketing company for their respective tourism, Minister St.Ange said that this proposal can be, and should be achieved through the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands concept , stating that the Indian Ocean region has everything to make our respective tourism industries a success, but togetherness needs to be felt and not just spoken..{}

Commenting on a hot topic in the Region: the Mauritius Indian Ocean annual event Shopping Fiesta and Flic en Flac carnival, Minister St. Ange has outsmarted his interviewee by saying that he has personally represented Seychelles at the official opening of the Shopping Fiesta as a sign of solidarity for the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands calendar of events and that he is not in position to comment on the Flic en Flac carnival which he did not attend.

South African Airways adds 3 more flights per week between Johannesburg and Nairobi

SOUTH AFRICAN ADD MORE FLIGHTS TO NAIROBI

Information has been confirmed that South African Airways is adding three more flights per week, upping the ante from daily to now 10 between Johannesburg and Nairobi.
The airline, a member of the worlds leading airline group Star Alliance will continue to use a mix of B737-800 and Airbus A319 on the route, which offer between 157 and 120 seats respectively in a two class configuration of Business and Economy.
A regular aviation source attributed the extra capacity put into the market to the growing demand of travel between the two countries but also the number of flights operated by Kenya Airways, which has been flying double daily on the route for a while now. Once in operation there will be 24 weekly flights between the Nairobi and Johannesburg, 3 on most days and 4 on three days every week with KQ operating 14 flights and SAA operating 10.
When making the announcement in Nairobi the airline also pointed out a change in their baggage policy which will now permit 2 pieces of checked baggage, subject to size and weight limitations however, which will apply to all flights to Johannesburg and beyond for connecting passengers for instance flying to Australia or North America.
Watch this space for regular and breaking aviation news from Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean islands.

FastJet brand on hold, AGAIN …

FLY 540 REBRANDING ON HOLD AGAIN

Reports from Nairobi yesterday evening speak of substantial animosity and arguments on the board of Fly 540, where the representatives of one section of shareholders apparently put the brakes on any future developments vis a vis the planned rebranding, until questions on the present legal cases and the implications for the company have been resolved to their satisfaction. A usually reliable source with insight into the affairs at 540 in fact speculated over the possibility of the entire deal being subject to re-negotiation now as allegations have been made that the respective debts or potential liabilities were not fully reflected in the companys books.
The low cost carrier has been battered of late with legal cases which has done little to enhance the reputation of the company and internal disagreements, on board and management level have only added fuel to the fire of rumours which has swept the aviation industry like a wildfire.
More waiting then for regular travelers by air across Eastern Africa it seems who had high hopes when recent media reports spoke of the new brand FastJet intending to introduce A319 aircraft to the fleet of aging aircraft Fly 540 currently uses for their main domestic and regional destinations. Watch this space as slowly but surely more news emerge and can be shared.

NEMA admits failure and lack of capacity to monitor oil activities in protected areas

NEMAS ADMISSION OF FAILURES PROMPTS FEARS FOR FUTURE OF PROTECTED AREAS
The Ugandan conservation fraternity is reeling in shock over NEMAs latest public admission, that they lack the capacity to effectively monitor oil exploration activities in the Albertine Graben, where much of the test drilling has taken place inside Murchisons Falls National Park, the Kaiso Tonga Game Reserve and now extends to the Semliki National Park before in the future reaching sections of the Queen Elizabeth National Park earmarked for test drilling. The organization also all but admitted that they have no capacity to monitor or enforce current regulation effectively in the absence of sufficiently trained and qualified staff, leaving the entire oil sector open to abuse of regulations, which are generally already considered as far too weak to prevent any significant damage to the surrounding environment.
The admission before the parliamentary committee on natural resources by NEMA officials is shocking and frightening at the same time. NEMA is supposed to be our national watch dog on environmental issues. Their failure to create capacity to monitor such potentially very hazardous activities is a scandal. If they are not given the funding by government to train staff and give them monitoring skills, or employ enough skilled personnel, then this is either a very bad oversight or a deliberate attempt to make controls fail so that oil companies can get away with anything really. And when the committee demands a full report from NEMA and it is not being produced we wonder what they are hiding from the public eye. There was a time when Heritage Oil used to take environmentalists and journalist to their sites to see for ourselves what they were doing but since they sold and left Uganda that has almost stopped. And we suspect when the Chinese come under the Tullow deal, they will just fence us out altogether and not allow any public scrutiny going by their track record. Does NEMA really have any teeth in their mouth? And the other day I drove to Munyonyo and can confirm what you have written about so many times that the Konge valley wetland is shrinking by the day with more buildings, now even a petrol station being put into the swamp? NEMA has become completely useless and is a disgrace now roared a regular contributor and eminent environmentalist from Kampala when discussing the parliamentary proceedings with him yesterday.
When confronted with the ire of parliamentarians on the committee the NEMA boss in an almost feeble way tried to offer mitigating factors on the issue of funding and their current level of activities, but MPs would have none of it and laid into the NEMA boss with a vengeance.
Questions are also increasingly being raised on the status of preparedness for a potential oil spill inside the parks, where in particular at Murchisons Falls a spillage could irrevocably alter environmental conditions of this biodiversity hotspot and contaminate the wetlands, Lake Albert and in particular the River Nile, on which downstream tens of millions of people in Northern Uganda, South and North Sudan and Egypt depend on for their livelihood. The impact on the tourism industry could be instant and almost lethal, as the habitat of birds and animals could be wiped out by a spillage, leading to tourists staying away as a result of the resulting negative publicity. However, oil companies have been shtumm on these issues and little is known how they are prepared with pre-positioned equipment and contingency plans to contain and clean up a major spill or leak and the same applies to government, where the level of readiness to deal with an oil accident is shrouded in secrecy. Questions galore and few answers of substance Quo Vadis Uganda. Watch this space.

Rising lake levels shut down Lake Baringo resorts

RISING LAKE LEVELS AT BARINGO FORCE RESORTS TO SHUT DOWN

Following a detailed report on a visit to Lake Baringo in December last year, when the lake levels already stood at near record highs, only once exceeded in living memory in the 1960s, the onslaught of the rising water appears to have continued with a vengeance it seems.
Reports from Baringo speak of camps and resorts now being forced to shut down for the time being, the most affected being the Roberts Camp, which according to a source who just returned from Baringo has been flooded for weeks, while the latest victim is the Lake Baringo Club, where the water has now reached up to the door steps of the buildings. Latest information just received confirms that the Lake Baringo Club has been closed with immediate effect, at least until the water levels recede again to manageable levels, and the company is in the process of rebooking clients already confirmed at the Lake Baringo Club to their Naivasha based Lake Naivasha Country Club. Having carried out major renovations and upgrades in recent months at Lake Baringo Club, this is a major blow to not just the company but also the wider Lake Baringo area, where accommodation is now restricted to the Island Camp and not much more, impacting on tourism receipts and having already led to layoffs of staff.
Lake Baringo and its environs, in particular the tall rock escarpment not far behind the lake shores, are famous for bird watching with more than 450 species of residents and migrants recorded. Across the lake beckon the distant Tugen Hills behind which the sun rises in the morning, making for spectacular light play and picture opportunities for those rising early to appreciate the breaking day.
The gardens of the Lake Baringo Club, now under the management of Sun Africa Hotels, are home to some 36 species of trees, as recorded by renowned Kenyan naturalist Hilary Garland who had spent much of her time in the 1980s at the club as a resident guide when she compiled a listing of all trees, shrubs and flowers she found. And it was also at Lake Baringo Club where the once bird spotting world record holder Terry Stevenson, who for a while was also based at the club as resident ornithologist, wrote his book The Birds of Lake Baringo, now a textbook for birders from around the world when reading up on the Baringo area.
Watch this space for future updates on the situation at Lake Baringo and be sure to read here when the Lake Baringo Club will re-open its doors again.