Demand for the Seychelles has grown tenfold

The tour operator Russian Express, one of the leading players on the Seychelles destination, compared the volume of bookings for holidays in the Seychelles with the pre-pandemic 2019.

“This year, the demand for the Seychelles has outperformed the pre-pandemic period – the volume of bookings in September and early October increased by about ten times compared to the same period in 2019. Of course, such a boom in demand was affected by the actual closure of many other countries for our tourists. But we also take into account the fact that the Seychelles is a year-round destination with direct flights, which didn’t exist before the pandemic,” Russian Express reports.

There are many ways to get to the islands from Russia now. On October 8, Aeroflot resumed its direct flight program on Mondays and Saturdays. From November, the carrier flies on Mondays and Fridays. In addition, there are various options with connecting flights. Emirates and Ethiopian Airlines have the most convenient connections.

“A direct flight remains more preferable for tourists. Immediately after the appearance of flights in the system, we began to receive bookings for tours with direct flights. But since direct flights are operated only twice a week, a significant part of tourists still choose options with a connection,” Russian Express underlines.

Basically, Russian tourists prefer 5* beach hotels in the Seychelles and mainly on the island of Mahe. The statistics in this regard have not changed much compared to pre-Covid times: 65% of bookings are for 5* hotels and 35% - for 2-4* hotels.