The Seychelles Islands is now more accessible to European visitors since Sunday, September 27, 2020, with the return of direct flights from Europe to Seychelles.
The Swiss airline, Edelweiss Air, the first European direct
commercial flight to land at the Seychelles International airport of Pointe
Larue since the destination has reopened for tourism in August 2020.
Edelweiss Air, only European airline serving the destination
currently departing from Zurich and scheduled for a weekly Sunday flight, has
so far disembarked some 367 visitors in the last 2 weeks.
In the spirit of keeping the destination closer to its
European market, Seychelles has made since October 1, 2020, special provision
to remain accessible for visitors from seven markets, amongst which six are its
European markets.
Which means that should the COVID 19 pandemic deteriorate in
those markets, instead of not being permitted to travel to Seychelles, these
countries will move to a category 2 of being permitted and additional measures
will be applied.
The additional measure includes a 48-hour or less negative
PCR COVID-19 test and staying at a hotel permitted for category two countries
for the first five days of the stay, whereby movement will be restricted to the
hotel property during that period.
For countries part of the seven markets, which still appear
on the category 1 permitted list, the standard travel procedures in the new
normal will apply.
The Seychelles Tourism Board Chief Executive, Mrs. Sherin
Francis emphasized how the destination is striving to remain safe and
accessible for visitors.
“This quarter has started fairly well for the destination.
Although with a bit of restriction, Seychelles will be able to receive visitors
from its prime market as of October 1, 2020, and the weekly flight from Zurich
is one great advantage for European visitors planning to visit our islands as
well. Not mentioning that two of our prime market countries namely Germany and
UK, has exempted Seychelles from their non-essential travel lists,” said Mrs.
Francis.
The STB Chief Executive further mentioned the STB digital
campaign ‘Experience Seychelles; our home, your sanctuary’, which aims to
encourage people to travel to the destination combined with the publicity
efforts made by the various offices across the world to remain visible to our
audience.
Since its reopening to commercial flights in August 2020,
Seychelles has been welcoming regular flights from three airlines including
Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airways and Ethiopian Airlines.
The local authorities and the local tourism business owners
are operating with extreme caution to ensure that the destination remains a
safe place for visitors.
