Thursday, August 5, 2010

THE HOTEL INDUSTRY AND THE SEYCHELLOIS
Many of the Seychellois who have invested in hotels are finding things hard these days - low occupancy, declining revenue and inevitable increases in costs. Many are asking themselves what went wrong; when are things going to change? As tourists continue making their way to larger, more competitive and better located establishments small establishments have started pinning their last hopes on the SHTA and the STB. It is doubtful; however, that the leaders of these two powerful organizations are at liberty to fully back what could and probably should be the demands of the small hotels.
And it is for this reason that the small hotels should now form their own association, so that they can present to Government their own particular problems.
Those affected by the new tourism environment should be asking whether the hard times they are facing are due entirely to outside (outside the Seychelles) factors, and quite beyond anyone’s control, or are they also due to factors arising from the Government and for that matter the Planning Authority’s decisions. After all, building a hotel, a guesthouse, or a villa in the Seychelles is not like building a house: it requires viability studies, cash flow and marketing plans. One of the main tasks of the Planning Authority is to ensure that a project is viable, and continues to be viable, and does not become a burden on the state. It would be strange, therefore, if the Planning Authority were to give planning permission to any project which could create UNFAIR COMPETITION. It would be stranger still if the UNFAIR COMPETITION was to originate from land owned and decisions made by the State.
Most of us have reconciled to the fact that life can be difficult and destiny uncertain….. and that Caveat Emptor still applies in the world of business. To seek direct reparation would be out of context with the way the Seychelles operates. The way to adjust the unfair competition is mostly about asking Government to change certain of their policies. It may also have to include certain concessions. I list out below a few suggestions:
1. Make the holding of air tickets the only requirement for entry into the country and publish the fact on the national website, together, if possible, with rooms available in Seychelles on a daily basis.
2. Allow the operation of a reservation desk at the airport, before passport control, dedicated to small establishments.
3. Give free access to National Parks, and to Golf Courses if built on State land to all clients staying at small establishments.
4. Allow the organization representing small establishments to operate water sports on the main beaches.
5. Take seriously the danger of Seychelles becoming, purely, a ‘hotel destination’, and plan for the creation of more attractions – aquariums, better and more exciting nature reserves, etc, so that visitors would be tempted to leave their hotel rooms.
6. Put pressure on the larger hotels, all hotels for that matter, to deliver on a daily basis the Nation newspaper to all clients. This will give visitors unbiased access to what is going on in the country.
"It is now clear that the advantage the large operator has (over the small one) is boosted by location. This can in the future be adjusted by insisting that large projects are tackled on difficult sites (not necessarily less attractive), and that the easier and readily more attractive sites are reserved for Seychellois. It is ridiculous, for example, that the flat, easy to build land between the Beau-Vallon Bay Hotel and the Fisherman's Cove is given to a rich man for development.
As regards Government owned islands, tendering for their development should be limited to Seychellois."

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

I commend the author of this article. Very much to the point. These are key issues that the CEO of Tourism has to address as a matter of urgency. No more sitting on the fence and waxing lyrical about the arrival numbers going up. He needs to get down from his cloud nine and tackle the real problems that the industry faces. There is no point playing the fiddle to Michel. We all know what the problems of the trade are and they need to be addressed. St. Ange was a firm advocate of these problems and now he cannot run away from them. He is in a key position to make changes happen! He should not forget that it is the tourism trade (private) sector that got him there! He now has to set all the wrongs right. Of course the low occupancy, dwindling revenues, illegal accommodation, unfair practices etc... need to be addressed. It is part and parcel of the mandate of the CEO of tourism (and his minister - James Michel - and his chairman - Barry Faure)to tackle these problems. Tourism is not only about arrival numbers!!!!
Too much favouritism has to stop. Too many concessions to foreign companies are stangling the small Seychellois hoteliers. Wonder why the revenue is down? The big fish have swallowed the small fish. All their revenue does not come to Seychelles but banked overseas. They are undercutting the rates to fill their gigantic hotels. Seychelles is now in the same league as Bali and Thailand. We used to be known as a five star destination with 3 star products. The way we have killed our environment with monstrous projects such as Raffles on Praslin, we are now a 3 star destination with 5 star products (?)(sic) selling at 3 star prices! Not a bad turnaround Mr. Ceo, Affordable Seychelles seems to have backfired! We have the numbers but our pockets are empty. Can we call this a successful tourism strategy???
Playing the ostrich on these issues will only show that the new CEO is as incompetent as his predessors!

Anonymous said...

To Mr James Michel and Mr Alain St Ange:

Seychelles needs a transparant, clearly defined policy and strategy. In my opinion Seychelles should cater for limited 5 star products and limited 3 star 4 star and self catering. What we cannot allow is a free for all where 5 star gains big concessions and can charge 3 star rates. The lack of vision and clearly defined strategies will only result in lost revenue. Arrivals will be high but revenues will be low.

We call this 'busy fools' in business terms.

YB

Anonymous said...

I agree that tourism projects on Seychelles islands should be reserved for Seychellois investors only, or at least a Seychellois should have majority shares in the Development Company. For far too long, Glenny Savy and his stepfather Albert Rene have controlled our islands for their own personal use, have destroyed Coetivy (Mukesh Valabhji) with a prawn farm that ended up costing the Seychellois taxpapers millions of dollars when we all know the proceeds were stolen by Albert and Mukesh, and we also know that Glenny Savy has been running an illegal hotel on Farquar for decades and have pocketed the money in his Mauritian bank accounts. What can Alain St. Ange do about this? Nothing really. Michel is still a couyon and will always be a miserable dumb ass who takes orders from Albert. Tourism will not change under Michel, let alone under poor St. Ange who may have the right intentions but the wrong boss.

In the end, there is only one way to change tourism. Change the Government first, because it is their misguided policies that have turned our beautiful country into this mess that we are in today. One only has to look as far as the mess at the airport which supposedly was improved recently. What a disaster!
We cannot even handle 2 planes at a time. Arrival lounge is pathetic, departure queus are so long that people are waiting 2 hours just to check in. This is the last impression a client gets, and it is not a good one. Rip off prices at the so-called national parks, no bins on beaches, stray dogs, drugs, filth everywhere, ridiculous prices at hotel establishments (try Euro 10 for a bottle of water which costs that same hotel SCR 7), US$ 25 for a lousy burger and some oil-soaked chips, Euro 2,000 for a days fishing due to the high prices of fuel, and we wonder why revenue has declined? The only winner is the corner Indian shop where tourists stop to buy a few drinks and a few packet of biscuits to chew on instead of eating at their hotels.

I reiterate that in order to change tourism for the better, we have to remove James Michel and his party from this Government. I don't care if you support Lepep, SNP, Boulle or DP; if you are a patriotic Seychellois, you must vote this party out if you want to see a real change in Seychelles. We can forget revenue we get from the fishing industry, especially now that the Thais have bought out the tuna cannery. Tourism is our lifeline, and it is tourism that feeds all of our people. It is clearly time for a change and we must all get together to vote Michel and his bunch of crooks out of power as soon as possible. I don't care who takes over State House, but I can honestly say that a monkey has a higher IQ than Michel thus it is not important who moves into State House. As long as it is not a Parti Lepep person.

Thank you for this blog. It is truly a breath of fresh air in our despotic society.

Anonymous said...

Part I - I agree that tourism projects on Seychelles islands should be reserved for Seychellois investors only, or at least a Seychellois should have majority shares in the Development Company. For far too long, Glenny Savy and his stepfather Albert Rene have controlled our islands for their own personal use, have destroyed Coetivy (Mukesh Valabhji) with a prawn farm that ended up costing the Seychellois taxpapers millions of dollars when we all know the proceeds were stolen by Albert and Mukesh, and we also know that Glenny Savy has been running an illegal hotel on Farquar for decades and have pocketed the money in his Mauritian bank accounts. What can Alain St. Ange do about this? Nothing really. Michel is still a couyon and will always be a miserable dumb ass who takes orders from Albert. Tourism will not change under Michel, let alone under poor St. Ange who may have the right intentions but the wrong boss.

PART II BELOW -

Anonymous said...

PART II - In the end, there is only one way to change tourism. Change the Government first, because it is their misguided policies that have turned our beautiful country into this mess that we are in today. One only has to look as far as the mess at the airport which supposedly was improved recently. What a disaster!
We cannot even handle 2 planes at a time. Arrival lounge is pathetic, departure queus are so long that people are waiting 2 hours just to check in. This is the last impression a client gets, and it is not a good one. Rip off prices at the so-called national parks, no bins on beaches, stray dogs, drugs, filth everywhere, ridiculous prices at hotel establishments (try Euro 10 for a bottle of water which costs that same hotel SCR 7), US$ 25 for a lousy burger and some oil-soaked chips, Euro 2,000 for a days fishing due to the high prices of fuel, and we wonder why revenue has declined? The only winner is the corner Indian shop where tourists stop to buy a few drinks and a few packet of biscuits to chew on instead of eating at their hotels.

I reiterate that in order to change tourism for the better, we have to remove James Michel and his party from this Government. I don't care if you support Lepep, SNP, Boulle or DP; if you are a patriotic Seychellois, you must vote this party out if you want to see a real change in Seychelles. We can forget revenue we get from the fishing industry, especially now that the Thais have bought out the tuna cannery. Tourism is our lifeline, and it is tourism that feeds all of our people. It is clearly time for a change and we must all get together to vote Michel and his bunch of crooks out of power as soon as possible. I don't care who takes over State House, but I can honestly say that a monkey has a higher IQ than Michel thus it is not important who moves into State House. As long as it is not a Parti Lepep person.

Thank you for this blog. It is truly a breath of fresh air in our despotic society.

John said...

You guys have one part right...and are misguided about the other part. Yes the airport is shameful, the roads are too tiny for even one car...forget two. Victoria and all of the districts are badly planned.
What Seychelles is today is a mirror of what we become as a people under Albert Rene...lazy, small minded, always looking for a free handout. We don't have a vision, most college educated kids leave our shores forever...we need to figure out ways to keep our young people here. They are the only ones who can build Seychelles up brick by brick...otherwise we will always look to foreigners. We need to transform our country to attract our own citizens who are leaving. Think big, think Hawaii, Canary Islands, Bahamas, etc. And these small hotel operators should band together and open a few large hotels to compete against these foreign chains instead of complaining. The foreign hotels get concessions because they could take their money and go to 100 other destinations more beautiful then Seychelles...and what would we do then.
For many years, many of us have succeeded in life despite our lack of education, skill, etc...we should welcome the competition and learn from them...and then aim to be better. Stop crying, start working hard...stay at work till 7pm, don't go to the discotheque...invest your money. I've seen little Indian expatriate shop keepers become millionaires in a few years...if they can, so can we! God Bless the Hard Working Seychellois...no matter what his political leanings are!!!

Anonymous said...

Whilst i agree with the last commentator i believe the hard work is not sufficient any more. I start work at 8 pm and leave my office not earlier than 7 pm. I work half day on Saturdays (am in office right now) and often on Sundays on my lap top. I take a few breaks per day, surf on the net check out STAR and post a few comments. But what i DO NOT DO is 'zwe rol SPPF'. I get no favors from the SPPF (nor do i ask) but i am constantly sidelined/ignored even if i am good in what i do(at least my clients tell me that). My only sin seems to be the some of my family members are associated with the Opposition. I cannot ignore the Govt because of the nature of my work i have to interact with it on a daily basis. The Indian Expatriates you mention are chameleons, they keep their heads down.

My hope is that one day the SPPF/PL realise one day that we all deserve a fair chance. Had i been allowed to work freely i wound have by now conservatively been employing not less than 10 other Seychellois.

On issue of unity...we all saw what the results for the La Misere residents were...red,blue,green, yellow united in a common purpose and the Govt was forced to spring into action. The results are not there yet but it is in the right direction.

Vox

Anonymous said...

John ,all these countries you mentioned like BAHAMAS have opted for sustainable tourism becuase it protect the environment,it is better for the economy,employment of locals,minimized wastage,water shortage,pollution etc because they have understood that environemnt is the their key mark for their hotel industry and they are right.Think big,is what Michel preaches and the end result is there for us all to see,Big Hotels do not bring in money to our economy and instead of providing locals with jobs most of those big establishments are importing hundreds of cheap labour to take Seychellois jobs-this is devastating for a small economy like ours,.By importing foreigners to take Seychellois jobs the standard of living have drastically been degraded,pushing our people in poverty.

TWe must no think big but smartly.

Jeanne D'Arc

Anonymous said...

Hey, your point - just your side. It is understandable of course, but there is another, only right for tourists - a healthy competition. If you can not withstand internal competition - you have to leave the market, or languish in the impoverished.

Well, here above, remember Bali. I recently returned from Bali: excellent, private villa with pool, garden and maid for $ 1100.00 a month! What can resist the Seychelles? Only your desire to get more money? Hey, offer the best service at a lower price and we, the tourists will go to you, leave you their money!

Oh, sorry, you do not like tourists as we are, you like very rich, who throw money left and right! Well, it you have to wait for them to come visit. Sit and wait.

Anonymous said...

Don't confuse what the majority of Seychellois want to what PP government wants.If the people are opposed to those massive construction of those large five star hotels that do not bring in money into our economy is becuase we believe that what best for us is the development of medium and small exteprises. we believe that in most cases when tourists come to visit our land they come to enjoy the beauty of our land,our tradition,cuisine,culture etc not eating caviars and sushi in five star hotels.That why we opposed to the government actual policies on tourism,it is a failure.

Jeanne D'Arc

Anonymous said...

There are so many things wrong with our tourism industry. Most of it has been touched by many others on this blog.

The source of the problem is obviously the government on the top of the pyramid. From there you can trickle down to other areas of improvement.

We seriously need a change and new ways of doing things better, rather than the same trial and error ways we are used to.

I am still yet convinced that St. Ange will be given the tools necessary to make any changes.But I do support him.

On anothert note, I would also like to see some articles on STAR relating to other industries such as the retail, fishing and even the small artisans working from home.

Maybe then it will be easier to see, for others who are not yet able to, the common difficulties from common sources.

B

Anonymous said...

I Reply to Don't Go 2 Disco-

The article is but one opinion.

The work hard work smart idea, I agree with and live by it. Many other Seychellois do aswell, in spite of the unfairness of the set up under PP and old SPPF.

Concessions and special priveleges in business to set up shop in Seychelles is ridiculous. I oppose this and will continue to oppose it until it stops.

You say that Seychellois should ban together and do larger hotels, that is a good idea, and in time that is what will happen.

You sight Hawaii Bahamas as examples to emulate. That is good and I agree with you. But those places have free governments, not communists running the show.

As long as communistsrun the show, crime will always go up and come down when a ban of official thugs arms themselves with uzi's or Ak -47's and take to the beach to fight off crime.

Seychelles needs decency in its day to day affairs, and we will not get that with communists lackeys.

Cheers to the writer of the article for expressing a valid opinion, though I may not agree with all points.

Christopher Gill

Anonymous said...

Reply to Tourist from Bali-

The point of the article I believe is not that the writer is anti competition on a fair play field that applies to everyone with reserved rights to Seychellois in some fields, but that the Tourism porduct and industry has been grossly mismanaged to the point that fantastic Seychelles, will be selling for the same price as plain Jane Bali.

I am sorry, but Bali does not come close to Seychelles in natural beauty. But our powers that be are destroying that over night.

Christopher Gill

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Anonymous said...

The Seychelles islands were beautiful as they were some 20 odd years ago. Whilst it did need to come into the 21st century, was there any real need for the numerous huge hotels that now cover the once lush green areas? It is all well and good that we keep with the times, but surely the Airport must be renovated...Air conditioning maybe??? A few more immigration officers at arrival?
And let us not forget that the folk who visit our beautiful shores work their buts off for years afterwards and get back to tell the real story...what a rip off the hotels are! Everything is either priced in Euros or Dollars!
The harassment on the beach by young men especially if you are a lady on her own. Being told about the political problems...Visitors do not want to know about your problems. They have paid a huge price for a lovely, tranquil holiday! Not to ripped off, or being pested by lads who have nothing better to do.
I remember working in the tourism industry, it was a choice how the tourist would pay. And there was a FX desk at most hotels or the guests were sent to the bank.
Until all this is actually rectified, the tourism industry in the Seychelles will struggle and the people of these beautiful islands who really do have the country's best interest at heart will always struggle.
People of Seychelles stop being scared of voicing your opinions, make good use of your voting cards at the next election..for you and your children and children's children.

Anonymous said...

king rat
very interesting indeed all comments some very angry and bitter about politicians . are they not the same in the end / so dont' cry wolf too early.
Almost everywhere you go soneone or some businesses will not be happy and think he/they can do better. its fair but what has been dont cannot necessarily be undone . its time to regroup , re think and work hard towards that new goal.
I remember in the 70S seychelles was 5 star destination & service and other tourist destinations in the Indian ocean have copied the products& ideas .. look now ? trying to be anti foreigners will not help you guys world is a global village soon you will have a milion chinese investors and what are you going to say ? when your govrnment has sold the country to them??either you have a tribunal popiler like POl POt and strip those who have stolen the lepep or you forgive and walk away . tka eexample of japan here during the 2nd world war they were cheeky and strong bomb the Us what did the US did in return gave them one they will never ever forget the atomic b. so get these thugs and hang them lor big ben after you have got all the dollars

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