Port Victoria in Seychelles to introduce Cruise Village for coming season

Port Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles has announced plans to establish a Cruise Village adjacent the cruise terminal for the 2023/24 cruise season, in order to ensure passengers deal with licensed service providers and enjoy their time on the island.

Seychelles cruise season runs from October, 2023 to May, 2024 and the Cruise Village will be set up at the Island Development Company (IDC) car park next to the Port of Victoria from the October 24 until the season closes.

Service providers who want to be present in the Cruise Village will need to adhere to a set of rules including registering at Tourism Seychelles to obtain their identification badges and respect spaces they are allocated at the car park.

 “The aim of the Cruise Village is to discourage unlicensed providers from competing with the licensed ones once the cruise ship season begins,” the principal secretary for Tourism, Sherin Francis, told the press.

Francis added that while her department had come up with the rules and regulations, “they were not set in stone and could be revisited” after the first ship berths in Port Victoria.

Cruise service providers who fail to comply with the regulations, “may face consequences, including but not limited to warnings, suspensions, revocations of licenses or denial to the Cruise Ship Village”.

SH Diana of Swan Hellenic will be the first cruise ship of the season to dock in Port Victoria. She is due to be in Seychelles on October 24th as part of a series of voyages from Cape Town, South Africa.

The cruise industry in the Seychelles plays an important role in the tourism industry with 40 cruise ship calls in Port Victoria in 2023, and another 40 scheduled for the coming season, including MSC Splendida, which will be the largest ship of the season at 333.3 metres in length.

Several of the cruise itineraries featuring Port Victoria will either be departing from Dubai and Cape Town, or sailing to one of the two cities. 

Zuiderdam of Holland America Line will call on November 10th as part of a 35-night Grand Africa voyage from Casablanca to Cape Town.

Silver Spirit of Silversea will call on December 13th as part of an 18-night cruise from Dubai to the archepelgo, and Bolette of Fred Olsen Cruise Line will call on December 21st as part of a 69-night voyage from Southampton to Cape Town.

In early 2024 there are also cruise calls by Norwegian Dawn sailing a Doha to Mauritius itinerary, Amera of Phoenix Reisen sailing from Cape Town to Mahe, and Silver Spirit sailing from Cape Town to Athens.

In April, Nautica of Oceania Cruises will close out the season with a 49-night voyage from Sydney to Cape Town, calling in Port Victoria on April 28th, 2024.