Cape Town

© City of Cape Town / afrol News

afrol News, 12 March - Tourism boards in Seychelles and South Africa have teamed up to promote joint travel packages. European and American tourists are to be offered Seychelles beaches, South African safaris and the city of Cape Town in one package.

This was agreed upon by the Seychelles Tourism Board, Cape Town Routes Unlimited and Mpumalanga Parks and Tourism Agency during a presentation at the world's largest travel and tourism exhibition ITB in Berlin. Together, the three private-public agencies plan to offer the region's three most famous destinations to tourists, including the Krüger Park in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

The destinations are presented as "iconic and very diverse", and will be marketed together in a single tourism prospect to be distributed in the main markets, meaning Europe and North America. One of the outcomes of this agreement will be the facilitation and promotion of travel packages, combining the three destinations.

"Mpumalanga will be complementing the experiences offered by both Seychelles and the Western Cape to the South and North American Market, including Europe. This arrangement provides an opportunity to position Mpumalanga as the safari and adventure tourism destination to these markets," commented Charles Ndabeni, the CEO of the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency.

Seychelles Vice President Joseph Belmont, heading the Seychelles delegation at ITB, said that Seychelles was happy to be associated with its mainland neighbours in South Africa. "It is in Africa working with Africa that we shall be strong in promoting our continent to the world," Mr Belmont said.

The archipelago's Director of Tourism Marketing Alain St Ange, who signed the agreement on behalf of Seychelles, said the three destinations "complement each other and the diversity we are offering as tri centre destinations is hard to beat."

This agreement also comes at a time when Air Seychelles is extending its services to include a weekly flight to Cape Town. The airline will from 21 March 2010 operate a flight from the Seychelles via Johannesburg to Cape Town.

This new route comes in reaction to increased visitor interest in combining a vacation between South Africa and the Seychelles and is also said to provide increased direct links between Seychelles and South Africa with the advent of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in June and July.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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