Seychelles sailing holiday

Planet

The smaller size of our ship and the smaller passenger numbers ensures that any detrimental social and environmental impacts are minimised whilst allowing the passengers to visit smaller communities that don’t usually benefit from this form of tourism. Most tourists to Seychelles stay (and often don’t leave) some large resorts in a few restricted locations, so by enabling our passengers to visit some different areas without putting any strain on local amenities, we are spreading the financial benefits and the load of our visit.

Sail power has very obvious benefits, vastly reducing the carbon used in any form of travel. Although we cannot use the sails all the time and in all conditions, they do provide a welcome benefit.

Most of the islands visited on our this cruise are run by not-for-profit NGOs, foundations or government conservation/monitoring organizations, and everyone that visits these places provides desperately needed funding toward the continued conservation and research of their unique ecosystems. These charges are combined into one 'conservation fee,' so that everyone that joins this cruise knows that this separate amount is going directly toward the islands' preservation and long-term sustainability. These partner organizations include:

Seychelles Islands Foundation - a government conservation body that manages Seychelles two UNESCO World Heritage sites: Aldabra and the Vallée de Mai

Seychelles National Parks Authority - a government agency charged with the protection of all national parks, including the variety of marine park reserves we visit on our itinerary such as the Ste Anne Marine National Park, the Baie Ternay Marine National Park, as well as Curieuse, St Pierre and Coco islands

Island Conservation Society - an NGO which owns and manages Aride Island, as well as providing consultancy for government with respect to environmental conservation on other islands such as Silhouette Island and the coralline outer isles.

Marine Conservation Society of Seychelles - an NGO with a particular focus on marine research, which has spearheaded a variety of initiatives toward the better understanding and conservation of sea turtles, sharks, whale sharks and marine mammals.

Nature Seychelles - an NGO which is responsible for the management of Cousin Island Special Reserve.

We will visit Cousin Island, a bird sanctuary run by Nature Seychelles and their partner, Birdlife International. Our visit, apart from educating our guests to the fantastic work being done on the Seychelles, provides a little funding to the NGOs that are working to preserve some of the world's rarest species. In 1959 there were fewer than 30 Seychelles warbler left alive, all on Cousin Island. Following fantastic work by these NGOs and others, the population began to recover and birds were translocated to other islands. The island also hosts the incredibly rare Seychelles fody, Seychelles magpie-robin, the endemic Seychelles sunbird and Seychelles blue pigeon as well as the Malagasy turtle dove. The island hosts over 300,000 nesting seabirds of seven species.

We rely heavily on small local businesses for providing local excursions for our passengers, providing an income to several smaller local firms.

All the food on board is bought in the Seychelles; fruit, vegetables, plenty of fish, meat and other staples are all locally grown and produced, and much of it is bought from small retailers or even directly from the grower or fisherman.

People

We encourage all our passengers to engage with the local community on a social and economic level to ensure that this tourism has a benefit to both the visitors and the hosts.

The ship’s managers will buy as much of their produce as possible from local communities, and we will also encourage our passengers to spend money in the communities that we visit. By trying some local fruit juice instead of a well known American brand of soft drink, you will support the economy, it will be better for you and, who knows, you might find you enjoy it more too.

We will endeavour to maximise the benefits of tourism and to minimise or eradicate any downside, socially, environmentally & economically.

We will encourage our passengers to learn and understand as much as possible about the local traditions and way of life to enable them to appreciate the reality of life in the Seychelles.

The ships managers state that they "are committed to build upon this experience and success and provide high standards of service, while operating in a responsible and sustainable manner in co-existence with the natural eco-systems we visit."