27th November 2006 Release

As from 1st December 2006, Alphonse in the Seychelles will have new owners. The operations have been bought by a new consortium that plan to completely overhaul the businesses on the two atolls as well as to create a new scientific, monitoring, research and rehabilitation programme on Alphonse and St Francois in partnership with the Islands Conservation Society of Seychelles and Island Development Company Ltd.  The ICS is a Non-Governmental Organisation that manages Aride Island and in collaboration with IDC is looking after all the conservation and rehabilitation aspects of outer islands and atolls (with the exception of Aldabra which has its own conservation authority.)

The new owners include:

• Mark Read, the chairman of WWF in South Africa

• Dereck and Beverly Joubert, the well known National Geographic film makers and

• Colin Bell, the founder of Wilderness Safaris.  Colin retired from the company he started in January 2006.  During his tenure as CEO of Wilderness Safaris, he was one of the team that created North Island in Seychelles, which has recently won the best hotel in the world award from Conde Nast.  Colin is the CEO of this new company.

The new owners want to bring many of the world’s good practices and successes to Alphonse and St Francois and over time create the most superb lodge.

• Their first plan of action is to create a new environmental trust fund that will pay the costs to employ a new team of four ICS scientific officers and rangers to look after the atolls – and to start a research and monitoring programme.  Staff are already being recruited for these posts. They should be working on the islands by early 2007.

• The existing Alphonse and St Francois operations will continue as they are up until the 10th May 2007, headed up by Katie Rosiak, the hotel manager.

• From the 11th May, all guest activities will halt and the rebuilding and rehabilitation process will start in earnest.

• The new lodge will be built out of the rehabilitation process.  The coconut and casuarina woods will be used to build the new lodge.

• Over the next two years or so, we will be knocking down all guest accommodation and in their place creating new and most fantastic lodges with large spacious villas.  Alphonse Island is currently blessed with a good back-of-house operations. The generators, desalination plant etc will all stay as they are.

• Once all construction has been completed, then we can start the process to get rid of all the non-indigenous animals on the island.  The island has a surprising number of cats, chickens etc which will be removed so that some of the rare and critically endangered species of the region can be re-introduced on Alphonse.

What happens now?

• The Environmental Impact assessment process starts shortly with an experienced and independent team of scientists going onto the islands in the next ten days to study the atolls and investigate the plans.

• Until the EIA process has taken its course, we cannot do anything.  The results of the EIA will also guide us through the development stages.

• So for now, Alphonse and St Francois will be closed from the 10th May until further notice.

• Once the EIA has given us guidance as to what should be happening on these atolls, we will come back to the travel trade with a building and development plans with opening dates for the new facilities. 

• The earliest we can expect the opening is October 2008. 

 For further information, contact Colin Bell at colinbell@iafrica.com