Justin Arenhold has recently joined the Eden Island team as Business Development Manager and will be heading up the Eden Island Rentals Division.  He began his hospitality career in South Africa and has worked in General Management positions at some of the leading hotels in South Africa. Justin has had previous operating experience in the Seychelles and spent an exciting two year period as the Island Manager and Resort General Manager at North Island.

The Eden Island team put in a huge amount of effort and hard work with its preparations for this year’s float procession where the company again entered a float. Blessed by a break in the inclement weather on the day, the float procession weaved its way through the streets of Victoria to great excitement, joined by many others from all four corners of the globe. 

 REISEN HAMBURG

Eden Island was part of the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) stand at the REISEN HAMBURG Fair in February. STB put a very good stand together which was managed by Edith Hunzinger, Regional Manager for Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Edith is unbelievably positive and passionate about what she does and about Seychelles. This was very good exposure to the German market as many people were not even aware of Eden Island or the natural beauty of Seychelles. 

Eden Island’s impact on the Seychelles economy continues to grow. The influence of the longer term and therefore more sustainable elements of direct inflows to the economy is now being seen more and more.  The increase in permanent new jobs created on Eden Island, already in excess of 700 and estimated to increase to 1,400 by 2016, is a prime example. Another is the increase in taxes and fees received by Seychelles Revenue Authorities from business activities on Eden Island. Residency fees, taxes on rentals, stamp duty and sanction fees on re-sales are now all playing a significant role. In 2013 these generated in excess of SR 100m and in 2014 it is forecast this figure will exceed SR 150m.

Following the recent arrival of Air Seychelles’ first Airbus A330-200, the airline has announced that it will double its Johannesburg services to four return flights a week from 1 December.