From B.I. Ships to Turin-Trained Hoteliers: St. Ange to Chronicle Seychelles’ Tourism Story
A history of Seychelles tourism, from the first B.I. ships to the islands’ earliest hotels and dance halls, is taking shape — and its author is asking families and collectors to open their archives before the photographs are lost.
Ambassador Alain St. Ange, one of the figures most closely identified with Seychelles tourism, has announced that he is preparing a book documenting the origins and growth of the industry he spent a career promoting.
Speaking during a recent working visit to London, St. Ange said the project, titled “Seychelles Tourism History through the Eyes of Alain St. Ange”, would trace the sector from its earliest maritime beginnings — the age of the Messageries Maritimes and the B.I. ships that first linked the archipelago to the wider world — through the people and places that shaped its expansion across the islands.
The book’s scope is deliberately wide. It will follow the story from the first hotels and guesthouses to the cohort of young Seychellois sent to Turin for hospitality training as the International Airport opened its doors. It will also make room for the artists, craftspeople and Interflora florists whose work, St. Ange argues, became inseparable from the visitor experience in the islands’ early years.
A Launch Proposed in London
A British gallery in London has offered to host the book’s launch, a proposal welcomed by St. Ange. He noted London’s longstanding importance to Seychelles tourism, both as a source market and as the base from which much of the trade that once reached the islands was organised.
An Appeal to Families and Collectors
To document what official records have not preserved, St. Ange is asking collectors and the families of tourism pioneers to share archival photographs. Images of hotels and other properties, their owners and logos, and of the people who worked in or helped shape the early industry are all sought.
He is hoping in particular to locate photographs of the Grand Anse Hotel on Praslin, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Lanier; the Merry Crab Dance Hall and Hotel; and two La Digue landmarks, the Odeon Dance Hall & Choppy Bungalows and the Gregoire Dance Hall.
Also on the list are images of Urban Geisel and his La Digue Lodge, the original Village du Pecheur founded by Louis D’Offay and Cecile Hodoul, and the Northolme Hotel at Glacis. St. Ange is additionally looking for photographs of British Heads of Tourism in Seychelles, among them Eric Passmore and Paul Vine.
Why the Captions Matter
St. Ange stressed that a photograph alone is only half a record. A name, a date or even a short note about an image, he said, can be enough to preserve the story behind it — and to keep the founders of the industry present in how it remembers itself.
Families and collectors with material to contribute have been invited to come forward.
