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By Omar Mohammed
NAIROBI, June 23 (Reuters) - Seychelles said on Wednesday it
is looking to diversify its economy beyond its mainstay of
tourism into areas such as fisheries after visitor numbers were
battered by restrictions to arrest the spread of COVID-19.
The Indian Ocean archipelago saw revenue from tourism plunge
by 61%, a loss of $322 million last year, as tourist arrivals
dropped by 70%. Authorities closed off the island nation early
in the coronavirus pandemic to stem its spread.
The move starved resorts, cruise ship ports and nature
reserves of visitors.
"It's been a massive challenge," Minister for Foreign
Affairs and Tourism Sylvestre Radegonde told the Qatar Economic
Forum on Wednesday.
"The economy depends still on tourism. We are looking now at
diversifying the economy, moving into other sectors like
fisheries," he said.
"Overnight we saw the airport closed, no planes coming, no
visitors coming in, and the economy just was on its knees."
Other sectors of the economy which rely on tourism to thrive
were at a standstill.
"That is why we pushed for vaccination, maximum people
vaccinating, so we could reopen the borders like we did on March
25 this year," Radegonde said.
Seychelles has been called one of the highest vaccinated
nations in the world, employing the Sinopharm, Sputnik and
Covishield shots.
It has administered close to 138,000 doses of COVID-19
vaccine so far, which, assuming every person needs two doses, is
enough to have inoculated about 70.5% of the country's
population, according to a Reuters analysis.
But the archipelago has also seen a surge in
infections.
Radegonde said the high rates of vaccination had led some
people to relax their guard. "People became a bit
over-confident, dropped their guard and forgot about social
distancing, started partying," he said.
An increased rate of contact tracing may also have
contributed to the reporting of more positive cases, he added.
The country is now concentrating on vaccinating the
remaining 5,000-6,000 people who are still to be inoculated
before it can contemplate any booster shots that might be
needed, Radegonde said.
(Reporting by Omar Mohammed; Editing by Jan Harvey)
