Will Lousteau-Lalanne succeed where Francis Savy and the Ministry of Education FAILED?

Maurice Lousteau-Lalanne, CEO of Seychelles Tourism Board at the handing over of the Hotel Training School.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB), Maurice Lousteau-Lalanne, the Government of Seychelles has approved the building of 60 hotels in the next ten years to boost tourism revenues for the country. This will provide an additional five thousand beds. There are currently some six thousand hotel beds available on the islands, which drew a record 140,627 foreign visitors last year to their pristine white beaches and warm blue seas.

The tourism sector already employs 7,000 people, he said, and another 5,000 workers would be hired under the expansion plans. About half the new hotels will be large 3, 4 and 5 star properties, while the rest will be smaller establishments. This grand, some are saying too ambitious plan, was revealed at the official handing over of the hotel school from the Ministry of Education to the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) last week, Friday at La Misere.

The Hotel School formerly named the Seychelles Hospitality and Tourism Training College (SHTTC) will now be called the Seychelles Tourism Academy (STA). Previously most students who qualified from the school ended up not working for the industry, opting for jobs in other sectors. The Ministry of Education, STB and the STMA before has failed to appreciate the fundamental reason for this situation. They will continue to be unsuccessful in attracting students to work in the tourism industry unless they are willing to start listening carefully to good advice from people directly involved in the trade, in particular the Seychelles Hotels Association, the one that Mr. Louis D’Offay is the chairman. They must know a thing or two about the hotel business, unlike the people setting policies.

Some of the reasons given by Mr. Lousteau-Lalanne for students graduating from the hotel school but not working for the tourism industry are only a figment of his imagination. “The former students often did not have the work attitude to work in the tourism industry” Lousteau-Lalanne stated during a meeting between STB managers and SHTTC staff at the handing over. Of course the students did not have the work attitude to work in the tourism industry. They only attended the SHTTC because they did not have a choice. The SHTTC was their last resort and only chance of continuing their education, albeit in a field in which they did not have any interest at all. They went there not because they wanted a job in the tourism industry; they went there because they wanted to continue in higher education. If Mr. Francis Savy and the former Minister of Education, who is dying to be our next President, did not see this then we are in serious manure. God help us!

Mr. Lalanne, this is a word of warning before you and your friends waste our precious resources again – get the Ministry of Education to sort its careers guidance department out - then please vet carefully. Mr. Lalanne, we mean vet carefully because the students applying to join your newly created Seychelles Tourism Academy must be doing it for the right reasons. The Seychelles Tourism Academy must ascertain that these students are really there because they want a career in the local tourism industry and not just because they want an internationally recognisable diploma or degree. And lastly, Mr. Lalanne, please make a career in the tourism industry attractive enough with prospects for the students enough to encourage new recruits in joining the tourism trade. This advise is free Mr. Lalanne “For the love of Seychelles!”