The Seychelles, an Indian Ocean paradise holiday destination, gains two-thirds of its GDP from tourism. Yet the paradox is, if it lets more tourists in to boost the economy it could harm its greatest attraction – its unspoilt reputation. Jeremy Torr reports.

Victoria, Seychelles. February 2020. Often described as a tropical island paradise, Mahé Island, the largest island in the Seychelles group, is facing a difficult choice. Bring in more tourists and boost the economy, or cut numbers and maintain its pristine reputation – but risk a drop in tourism growth.

Seychelles Minister of Tourism, Didier Dogley, said that the country saw almost US$500 million dollars in income in 2018, with tourist numbers up some 20% in some months compared to 2017. Despite this dramatic increase in tourist arrivals; one that has been recorded annually for the past five years, Dogley says the figures are only just controllable. “We have not reached half a million tourists per year yet, so I think so far these numbers are manageable. However (we need) to be mindful of the impact that mass tourism can have … on our environment if we increase this number,” he warned.

With a hundred-plus islands perched in the western Indian Ocean, the Seychelles is a favourite destination for rich European tourists. But as Nirmal Shah, director of sustainability NGO Nature Seychelles says, it needs to preserve its ecology just as much as work towards generating income.

“Tourism in Seychelles is increasing,” says Shah, “and that is of concern to conservationists and sustainable developers who (are worried) that maybe we are reaching a point that experts call over-tourism.” Shah adds that some places in the Seychelles could already have reached full operational capacity, and that this could already have put the country’s areas of protected natural beauty under threat.

“This (tourism influx) is affecting the coping ability of our management team, and the biophysical carrying capacity of the Special Reserves are also being overshot,” he says. As a result, the Seychelles government could well cut tourist numbers to protect the nation’s unique environment. Tourism, no matter how economically attractive, will not be given precedence. But if it is properly managed, it can be an asset to the whole community, explains Shah.

Part of this approach has seen a nationwide moratorium on the construction of large hotel projects since 2015, extending at least up to the end of 2020. Conservation has also been lifted up the agenda nationally, with maintaining existing natural resources and features given priority over new developments.

“We have all kinds of other measures which are very important for conservation, like managing pollution, managing waste, climate change action and so forth,” adds Shah. “I think we’re poised to become the sort of eco-country or eco-capital of Africa because of these sort of achievements that have been done, achievements that are not just popping out of the woodwork, have been a progression,” he says.

Poverty alleviation, gender equity and environmental sustainability (including climate change) are also built in as part of the aims on the government’s new approach. The hope is that all new tourist developments on the islands will promote everyday use of renewable energy, as well as minimising food and plastic waste and carefully managing recycling and reusable resource systems. A boost to local employment has also been implemented in the form of the Seychelles Tourism Master Plan: Destination 2023 created last year. This aimed to increase investment in sustainable tourism, support small establishments and increase locals' participation in the sector.

Things are already looking up, say the movement’s supporters. Already some of the big chains, like Hilton, are moving towards more sustainable operation. “In one year we managed to save from using almost 400,000 plastic water bottles by using refillable glass bottles instead,” says Hilton Seychelles GM, Andre Borg. “We started to (use) our own water which we took from Mt. Dauban, our own little mountain on the island,” he says. Now the hotel takes its supply from local springs instead of imported plastic bottled water and fills glass bottles to give tourist visitors. Other large hotel groups have introduced initiatives like using their own vegetable gardens and introducing solar power generation.

“I’m very optimistic,” says Shah. “I’m very optimistic about conservation because I see for the first time ever this integration of conservation with national development.”