The Seychelles has banned all cruise ship tourism through the end of 2021 as part of its efforts to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The East African island nation’s tourism minister announced the two-year ban on all cruise ship calls at Port Victoria earlier this month, saying the measure takes effect immediately, according to the Seychelles Nation, the national newspaper.
The country’s international airport on the island of Mahe has also been shut down since March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Seychelles appears to have been largely spared from the scourge of the pandemic. The archipelago has just 11 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 and no reported deaths, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
However, the country’s economy relies heavily on tourism, which is its second main source of foreign exchange earnings after commercial fishing, according to the Geneva-based International Trade Center.
