Written by: Shelda Komitant

As the world celebrates Tourism Week, an island country that lives on tourism wonders: Has the epidemic prepared it for a conflict in the sky?

In March 2026, nothing has changed on the shores of the Seychelles. The water was as clear as ever, the hotels were ready, and the welcome was warm. However, the number of arrivals fell by 37.2% year-on-year, to 23,746.

The destination did not fail...but the path to it failed.

According to the International Monetary Fund, about 60% of visitors arrive in Seychelles via transit flights in Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. And when conflict in the Middle East closed airports and airspace across the Gulf, the islands' main corridor to the world diminished overnight.

For a country whose economy is based on tourism, this was a familiar kind of fear.

We've been through this before

Six years ago, the world shut down completely. In April 2020, Seychelles received 22 visitors. In the same month of the previous year, the number was 37,103. Arrivals in 2020 decreased by 70%.
The response became a case study. Seychelles was the first African country to launch a national COVID-19 vaccination campaign in January 2021. By March 2021, it was one of the first destinations in the world to fully reopen.

The question this Tourism Week is simple: Did this pandemic prepare us for this crisis? The honest answer is: partly.

The first lesson: speed

Covid has taught Seychelles that it costs more to wait than to act. This year, the response came in weeks, not months.

Air Seychelles has launched temporary direct flights to Paris and Rome to protect access to Europe, the largest source market for visitors. The partners returned one by one: Qatari and Turkish in June, Aeroflot in July, with additional capacity from Ethiopian.

This list tells its own story. Gulf, Europeans, Africans, Russians. A country that says it is “a friend to all and an enemy to none” can rebuild its air bridges from every direction.

Lesson two: value before number

The second lesson paid off quietly. Between January and July, Seychelles received fewer than 2,025 visitors, yet tourism receipts rose by 4.7%.
After the pandemic, Seychelles chose not to chase numbers. It chose value: fewer visitors, higher spending, and environmental well-being over mass tourism. In crises, the size-based approach is broken. As for value-based, it bends.

Lesson Three: More than one market

Africa was the only major region to achieve growth in the first seven months of 2026, with arrivals rising by 9.6%. Regional relations are no longer marginal. Rather, it has become insurance.

Next work

Every crisis leaves homework. Today, about six out of every ten visitors to Seychelles arrive via Gulf hubs that have served the islands for years. Expanding these portals, alongside them rather than instead, is the natural next chapter.

The pandemic tested demand. This crisis has tested access. Seychelles passed the first test with audacity. Only in the second half will it succeed in building more than one way to return: more direct flights, more gates, and a stronger role for its national carrier.

Recovery...the numbers are shifting
August arrivals rose 14.1% year over year to 34,987. Total arrivals in the first eight months are 1.2% higher than the corresponding period in 2024, although it is still 8.3% lower than the record number of 2025.

The sky is not calm yet

Last week, Iran warned that airports in neighboring countries cooperating with US flight restrictions could face disruptions. Seychelles cannot control this. But she can control her readiness.

Peace is a tourism policy

At the United Nations last week, President Dr. Patrick Herminie told world leaders that Seychelles is “a friend to all, and an enemy to none.” He added that non-alignment “is not passive indifference, but rather an effective option for peace.”

For an island that lives on visitors, this sentence is also an economic policy. The traveler does not need to choose a party to choose Seychelles. A country with friends on every side of the flight path will always find a way to return its visitors to their homes.

Covid shut down the world. This crisis closed the corridors. Both times, Seychelles kept its door open.