Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Candidate for the position of Secretary-General of the UNWTO, left the Seychelles on Monday afternoon via Ethiopian Airlines and arrived in Madrid last night, ready to present his official documents and formalise his candidature this week.
As he was leaving the Seychelles, the former Minister responsible for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine said that his working visit to Madrid falls during FITUR, the Tourism Trade Fair of Spain, which gives him a great opportunity to network with Tourism Ministers coming from the Community of Nations.
“Apart from presenting my official documents as the Seychelles Candidate for the post of Secretary General for the UNWTO, I have also organised one-on-one interviews with a number of press representatives. On Tuesday the 17th I will join Tourism Ministers invited to a reception by His Majesty the King of Spain and I will also be attending the 2017 edition of the annual INVESTOUR conference where Africa meets Europe,” said St.Ange.
By joining the race for the top job in tourism, St.Ange of the Seychelles will be facing candidates from Georgia, Brazil, Korea, and Zimbabwe. “It is a position under the umbrella of the UN. It is a democratic electoral process and every candidate is only after what is best for the tourism industry. The candidates all know each other, and have interacted, as they have all been Tourism Ministers at one point in time. Member States of the UNWTO will elect who they see as the best person for the job. This is the normal course of action,” said St.Ange.
Seychelles is one of few countries where English and French are official languages, and St.Ange is coming forward as a candidate who has worked in the private sector for many years before joining the Seychelles Government as a Minister. He has been a strong advocate on public/private partnership for the tourism industry, not only for Seychelles but for the entire continent of Africa and its islands, and this has helped him steer the industry with a lot of successful initiatives.
