Following an announcement on the opening of Seychelles to tourism from South Africa last week, read here, Seychelles has now updated its travel policies and will, effective June 1, allow all travellers from South Africa, vaccinated or not, to visit its archipelago of islands. While passengers are strongly encouraged to be fully vaccinated before travel, this is no longer a requirement for entry.
“With immediate effect, Seychelles is ready to welcome all visitors, irrespective of their vaccination status, on the condition that they have a COVID-19 negative PCR test certificate that must be taken within 72 hours prior to travel,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tourism in a new update distributed on May 31.
The statement went on to clarify that travellers coming from South Africa would be permitted to enter the Seychelles but that visitors who had been in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal and Pakistan within the 14 days preceding arrival in Seychelles would be restricted.
“No quarantine is required for visitors entering Seychelles. However, they are strongly encouraged to be fully immunised before travel. Passengers are allowed free movement throughout their entire holiday but must adhere to all public health measures. They are also free to stay at any health- certified tourism accommodation establishment on condition that they follow all health protocols that are in place at these establishments,” added the statement.
All visitors require a valid Health Travel Authorisation for entry to the Seychelles, which must be done through the online portal at https://seychelles.govtas.com/.
FCTG md MEA, Andrew Stark, welcomed the news, saying it was great to see more international corridors reopen to South African travellers.
“There is enormous pent-up demand for international holidays and, as more destinations reopen, we are seeing how excited South Africans are to book their first international holidays in more than a year,” said Andrew.
Md of World Leisure Holidays, Ramesh Jeenarain, commented that there was strong demand for alternative Indian Ocean island destinations while Mauritius remained closed. He said the operator expected to see bookings to Seychelles do very well in the short to medium term, especially as Air Seychelles was also reintroducing its direct flights.
Ceo of Asata, Otto de Vries, said any move to reopen markets to South African travellers, with or without vaccination status, was good news for the market.
“This announcement will not only boost consumer confidence but will hopefully encourage other destinations to follow suit and reopen. I imagine that Mauritius, as an example, will be paying particularly close attention to this decision made by one of its closest neighbours,” said Otto.
Gm of Travel Counsellors SA, Mladen Lukic, agreed that this was great news, saying the decision had been keenly anticipated.
“The key for the resurgence of any type of travel demand is the gradual removal of blanket travel bans in line with more data-specific scientific protocols. While we understand that these bans will not all disappear at once, these small steps put us in a much better place and provide South Africans with another much-needed international destination to promote,” he added.
