Tourist arrivals grew strongly in 2010-by 10.8% to 174,529, an all-time high-but growth ebbed in the first quarter of 2011. Visitor numbers rose by 8.1% year on year in January, in a promising start to the year, but February arrivals were 0.2% lower and March arrivals 3.1% lower, resulting in growth of just 1% (to 45,574) in the first quarter. Slower growth partly reflected uncertain economic conditions in Europe, which continues to account for three in every four visitors, although weakness in the German and Italian market was offset by a rise from France. April, however, was a boom month, with arrivals surging by 39% year on year to 19,182, possibly spurred by the recent UK royal wedding and the newlyweds' decision to honeymoon in Seychelles, which could boost tourism in the months ahead. Owing to the April surge, cumulative visitor numbers were nearly 10% higher in the first four months of 2011 compared with a year earlier, suggesting that 2011 may prove to be another record year despite the constraint of Europe's slow economic growth, especially if alternative markets such as India, China, the Far East and the Gulf-where the Seychelles Tourism Board is increasingly focusing-grow.

In good news for tourism, the UAE-based Emirates airline announced in April that flight frequencies on the Dubai to Seychelles route had been increased from seven per week to 12 per week as of end-March, and would rise further, to 14 per week-twice a day-by end-2011. Emirates has captured a significant slice of the market since coming to Seychelles in 2005, adding to the pressure on the state-owned Air Seychelles, although the national carrier continues to bring the majority of visitors to Seychelles, accounting for about 90,000 in 2010 (52% of the total). Other competitors in the market are Air France (via a code share with Air Seychelles), Qatar Airways, Condor and Kenya Airways. However, the increase in the number of flights is exposing bottlenecks at Seychelles International Airport. To deal with this, the government plans to invest SRs45m (US$3.7m) in 2011-12 to reconfigure, renovate and expand existing facilities before, in the longer term (in five to six years), starting work on a brand new domestic terminal costing SRs1.9bn (US$158.3m).