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Friday 20 March 2015

Seychelles ranked among top 100 sustainable destinations by Green Globe

“With Seychelles ranked among the top 100 destinations practicing green sustainable tourism, I felt honored to be addressing the panel. After all, the Seychelles economy depends largely on tourism and will continue doing so for years to come. It is, therefore, important for us to preserve our green environment by encouraging sustainable practices to ensure that tourists keep coming back to our islands, giving us rave reviews.”

Sherin Naiken, Chief Executive of the Seychelles Tourism Board, was referring to her participation in the ITB travel trade show in Berlin from March 4-6. She had been invited to give a talk alongside representatives from countries like South Africa, Greece, and Tajikistan.

Her talk focused mainly on the Seychelles Sustainable Tourism Label (SSTL) which is a voluntary user-friendly sustainable tourism certification system designed to inspire more efficient and sustainable ways of doing business.

She elaborated on the Seychelles Sustainable Tourism Label’s (SSTL) mission to encourage tourism enterprises to mainstream sustainability practices into their business operations to safeguard the biodiversity and culture of Seychelles. Encouraging practices such as water conservation, waste, and energy management.

In her presentation, Chief Executive Naiken also highlighted Seychelles’ position as one of the leaders in environmental conservation. “We are one of the few countries that for the past three decades have had an environmental management plan that encompasses all sectors of the economy. Tourism policies have been built on environmental laws and policies that we already have in place.”

“Alain St.Ange, Minister for Tourism and Culture, promised to get our Seychelles sustainable label recognized globally in two ceremonies earlier this year. One whereby three tourism establishments were recertified and the other one in February when eight new tourism label assessors were awarded their certificates.

“This presentation in the travel trade show was the right platform to showcase the work being done by the certified local tourism establishments to implement sustainable practices. The presentation will also push Seychelles in the right direction in achieving the goal set out by the minister, as well as creating visibility for our efforts to promote the right type of tourism - green tourism.”

Source: Eturbo News

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