Christopher Gill's Column

Christopher GillThe “Spirit” is Not Relevant

Recently, Mr. President took to the Districts to meet up with long forgotten supporters whose lives are hanging on a thread after devaluation, hiked up electricity and water bills, inflated fuel prices and escalating cost of commodities have hit home hard. After promising us the heaven and earth in his Presidential Elections, and lying to us about paying off all our external debts and enjoying the pleasures of  Seven (7)Star hotels in Arabia, frolicking around the World to visit this and that, Mr. President is coming home to a failing State. As he advertises his “JJ Spirit” on SBC every night to fool the young and naive, BEWARE, the evil “Spirit” is failing us and it is no longer relevant to bettering our lives.

The “Spirit” will only make our lives more difficult and exclude us from the grand successes taking place in the region, today but not in Seychelles. No good will come from a bad spirit!

Let’s analyse some minor points where the Spirit has failed Seychellois this year.

Tourism Down By 15.6%

As Mr. President launched his Strategy 2017 Handbook, he told us we had to accelerate Tourism numbers. He sent Mr. Lousteau-Lalanne to SBC in January 2008 to tell us that this year, 2008, we will continue to expand our Tourism numbers and that the closure of Plantation Club hotel and the sale/ renovation of Coral Strand will not affect our tourism numbers.

Mr. Lalanne, a well known sycophant of Mr. President, who sits on many, many committees and boards, perhaps more than fish to a packet these days, told us in that SBC interview, that Seychelles was insulated from World Recession trends in the USA and Europe. He said that our “Haut de Gamme” market will still come to Seychelles irrespective. In spite of being one of Mr. Presidents’, bureaucratic gurus, Mr. Lalanne could not have gotten things wrong any worse than he did in his early 2008 interview.

 The June Emergency Meeting

In June, Air Seychelles called for an Emergency Meeting of all stakeholders when faced with consecutive-successive empty seat flights from London, a market STB was banking our Tourism numbers on in 2008.In that meeting, Air Seychelles asked hotels to reduce rates to allow it to sell Seychelles at competitive numbers. However, Air Seychelles was still selling a Seychelles bound economy fare at Pounds 800-1200 plus.

In business, no one operates in a vacuum. Everything imposed on a business has a cause and effect factor to it. If external factors go ignored over a prolonged period of time, businesses fail. So do countries. This has been the way of the World since the Empires of Greece and Mesopotamia and even the Roman Empire. This fundamental rule of life never changes and is applicable to all, even the JJ evil “Spirit”!

 How can hotels reduce rates when the “Spirit” is already stealing foreign exchange under the dubious allocation scheme? Many hotels have to survive off 12.75% or 15% allocations. This is impossible to do so to put it lightly, Begging the Industry to give more is not possible, SPPF-”Spirit”.

 The Big August Let Down

August is a traditional Peak Season for Seychelles. But this August, planes came in with sub-standard load passenger capacity, making the August Peak Season look more like a Bleak Season rather than a Peak Season. If the Industry listened to the Tourism Spirit spokesmen and planner on Tourism, we would have thought that all was well. Well, all was not well. While Tourism numbers dropped and international financial houses were hounding the “Spirit Team”, they were all off on holiday to Beijing, Mauritius, Singapore and Australia, even London itself.

Since the JJ Spirit Team has not done the home work on one of our key Tourism markets, I will do it to preserve Seychellois dignity and let the People of Seychelles know, that not all Seychellois are dreaming of a magic carpet rushing in to solve all our problems with a lovely belly dancer on it bearing gold coins to feed us. Or perhaps a camel will drop in and spit some great wealth on us.

 Britain is in the Financial Pits

While Air Seychelles sells a flight from UK to Seychelles for Rounds Sterling 800.00-1,200, The UK is undergoing a financial cardiac arrest with the Pound Sterling hitting an all time low in trading value against the USD and Euro. Currently the Pound is undergoing the longest consecutive decline since 1971.With Air Seychelles prices, UK “Haut De Gamme” residents will unlikely want to spend that much money on a flight.

In fact, instead of the UK Residents holidaying in Seychelles, it is now the best time ever since 1971, for Seychelles residents to visit the UK. While SPPF have increased taxes in the Industry to the point that Hotels are in a death-head lock on room rates, the hotel industry cannot help poor empty Air Seychelles fill seats anymore. Air Seychelles must help itself. Its CEO and Managing Director, whoever, must stop whining and get to work like a real corporate leader and not act like a “Momma’s Boy” and “Daddy’s little brat”!

 Virgin Attacks

Last year Virgin Airways started flying to Mauritius after Richard Branson could not make a deal with the “JJ Spirit” Government to fly to Seychelles. Branson thought he could make a great marketing pitch with “Virgin” and Seychelles “Eden” persona. Offended by communist thinking methods, Branson dropped the Seychelles leg initiative, and has launched a menacing attack on our traditional market segment, by discount selling other “creole- island beach holiday” destinations as UK financial markets hemorrhage.

Branson’s Virgin means business and is aggressively converging on the Seychelles traditional market in the UK. A Barbados round-trip, an 11 hour flight, Virgin sells for Pounds Sterling 399.00; to Antigua, it cost Pounds Sterling 399.00; to St. Lucia it cost the same and a mere Pounds Sterling 199.00 for a Premium Economy upgrade that includes a choice of meals and a larger more comfortable seat.

So if Colonel Savy and the “JJ Spirit team” want to know why our planes are empty, it is simple: your team has priced itself out of the market which you do not keep track of.

 “But the Price of Fuel is So High!” they whine.

Colonel Savy will whine and tell the “JJ Spirit” Team that the price of fuel is so, so high and he cannot do anything about anything, and it is all beyond his ability to manage this crisis and its not his fault that we have a negative 15.6% drop in Tourism in mid term and we have not even finished the year. He will say that the fact that things will get worse has nothing to do with his management and Government of Seychelles should keep on subsidizing his failings, since anything he touches turns into gold.

Well, I expect lame excuses from lame people. But the People of Seychelles deserve better then failure over and over again and again, then one day, the failures just show up and tell us , “ we have to replace the old supporters with a younger generation”. You see, someone defined madness as doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. Applying this definition to Air Seychelles and SPPF, one can safely conclude that they are both mad!

Yes, the price of fuel is high. When you fly a plane with empty seats, the high fuel cost results in even greater losses. Air Seychelles is the only Airline in the World that flies planes with empty seats and considers itself successful for just flying, then it brands that as the “Creole Spirit”. Just like JJ spirit, flying an empty plane just for the sake of flying, will make the Creole spirit irrelevant, Colonel Savy.

 How To Survive CEO/CHAIRMAN/CAPTAIN/COLONEL?

In order to survive this industry disaster and SPPF folly, Air Seychelles must act fast. Since you have no idea what to do, read on CEO/CHAIRMAN/CAPTAIN/COLONEL, and whatever title you can add to your lapels.

Immediately, reconfigure your planes. Allow for 12 First Class seats and charge premium rates for these seats to serve your few remaining “haut de gamme” visitors we really do have. The remaining Pearl Seats sell at a 20% discount with full service. Reconfigure your Economy seats to provide 50% Economy seating and 50% Premium Economy seating for the remaining seats. In Economy, charge basic rock bottom rates for passengers who are on the frugal side. That base income can be used to meet your operational costs, since you operate on a 75% load capacity to meet expenses.

Implement an Ancillary Itemized Costing Scheme for all Economy seats. For these frugal passengers, start charging them a la carte for water, tea, coffee, beer, food and anything they touch.

If children are traveling alone on a flight and need attendance, charge for the baby sitting. What use to cost Air Seychelles Millions of Euros per year, will now start earning you Millions of Eurosper year. Also cut the free tickets for District Branch officers and Army Officers, you cannot afford to spoil a blind Seychellois anymore. Teach him to earn his way and pay as he travels or stay home and work for a living. End the VIP Cargo Policy for your family and friends. Pay your way and get use to it. You will be able to look your children in the eyes when they come home from school.

 Do it now. It may help pay for the fuel bills. 

In Premium Economy, charge them more than Economy but less than Pearl Class. Give them a choice of meals and beverages. Fix that into the ticket pricing. You need to itemize expenditures to survive Air Seychelles, instead of running to Maison Du Peuple every time you run out of money. Run Air Seychelles like you are a CEO not a ZERO! Do not compromise our national pride at the price of satisfying your personal- false pride.

At STB, I don’t have to tell you gentlemen what you can do with your “Haut De Gamme Strategy” for Seychelles. You are all fooling each other. The rich people of the World, holiday in Monaco- Monte Carlo, Nice, Cannes, St. Moritz, St. Tropez every year, all year.

Our visitors work for a living contrary to your illusions. Many of them have home mortgages to pay. When their homes are reduced in value by say, 60% overnight as is the case in the UK today, they do not feel rich and do not feel like traveling far away to “Haut De Gamme” destinations like Seychelles.  So wake up SPUP-SPPF and “JJ Spirit” from your “Haut De Gamme” World of BS (Bachelor of Science) and stop destroying our lives with your foolishness.

Once you wake up, our flight from Heathrow will be full of visitors to Seychelles, instead of visitors in Transit to Mauritius and tourists to Maldives to help our competitors and other CEO’s. Until you wake up, the “Spirit” is not relevant to Seychellois!

 May God Bless All Freedom Loving Seychellois!

August 15, 2008
Copyright 2007: Seychelles Weekly, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles