23 March 2024
Former Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine of the Seychelles, Alain St. Ange has met with Michel Madi, the Director of Tourism for Mayotte in Mamoudzou. Michel Madi welcomed the highly-revered tourism guru, St. Ange to his offices at the city centre of Mamoudzou, the Mayotte capital city.
Mayotte is one of the Vanilla Islands of the Indian Ocean and it was an opportunity for the two tourism leaders to discuss the tourism industry as a vital industry for the six Indian Ocean Islands that make up the Vanilla Islands Group.
Alain St. Ange was the founding President of the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands and was honoured to have been the only Tourism Minister of the Member Islands to have been elected to serve two back-to-back mandates as President of the Vanilla Islands.
This meeting in Mamoudzou was the perfect opportunity to discuss the current cruise ship tourism niche market for Mayotte Island as well as their free independent tourism (FIT) market touching on the essential value for money demand by the discerning travellers and also needed security at all times, “Never forgetting that what is good for visitors is also good for the island’s residents,” said St. Ange.
St. Ange had been welcomed in Mamoudzou, the capital city of Mayotte, the French overseas region and department by the island’s main press on Friday 22 March 2024, whom he granted interviews upon his arrival. He arrived to a rich Mayotte welcome with flowers decorating the gangway from landing jetty, while a Maori cultural group in traditional light blue dresses sang and played their drums to entertain the disembarking passengers who made their way onto the shores of the island.
Alain St. Ange has been travelling on the cruise ship, The World, on a speaking tour of several destinations along the Indian Ocean coastline for the past week. He left Mayotte late afternoon on Saturday and is scheduled to arrive in the nearby Comoros Island very early on Sunday morning, another Island of the Vanilla Islands Group.
