The Seychelles government has bowed to pressure from operators and abandoned plans for a compulsory environmental gold card forvisitors.
The country’s president, France Albert Rene, announced that plans for the ú60 card have been scrapped. The card scheme was due to come into effect on November 1 this year.
Rene said that however hard the government had tried to explain the “noble thinking” behind the project, the travel industry had insisted on calling it a tax.
All visitors would have had to purchase the card on arrival. The card would have allowed tourists to enter major tourist attractions, with the proceeds funding the country’s environmental policies. Departure tax, which was doubled to $40 in January, would have been absorbed in the cost of the gold card. Now the card will be optional and the departure tax will remain.
Distant Dreams managing director Peter Traynor welcomed the decision. He said the card would have hit the operator’s business to the destination, which was down 25% over the past two years.
Originally, the gold card was to be introduced in January this year, but the government put it back to November following pressure from UK operators at the end of last year.