Tourism Is “Diplomacy Without a Negotiating Table,” St.Ange Tells Oxford Summit

Seychelles Ambassador challenges the world to measure tourism by more than arrival numbers, calling it one of humanity’s largest and most underrated forms of exchange

OXFORD, United Kingdom — September 7, 2026 — What if some of the most powerful diplomacy of our time happens not in embassies or at summit tables, but over a shared meal?

That was the question Ambassador Dr. Alain St.Ange of Seychelles put to delegates today as he delivered the keynote address at the Oxford Global Diplomat Summit & Dialogue at the Lord Mayor’s Cabinet Office, in the presence of the Lord Mayor of Oxford.

Speaking on the theme “Tourism as a Bridge Between Nations,” St.Ange argued that tourism deserves to be understood as far more than an economic sector. It is, he said, a daily act of human connection — one capable of challenging prejudice, strengthening peace and reshaping how nations see one another.

“At its best, tourism allows us to meet each other as people,” St.Ange told the gathering. “And at a time when the world is more connected than ever, but also deeply divided in many ways, that matters.”

Diplomacy without a negotiating table

St.Ange’s central message was that tourism moves much more than people and money. It moves ideas, traditions, knowledge and stories — and, often without people even noticing, it changes attitudes.

“Behind every international arrival is a person crossing a border, a culture being encountered, and a community being seen. And sometimes, a prejudice being challenged,” he said.

The distinction between knowing about a country and actually knowing its people, he argued, is where tourism can have its greatest impact.

A nation can become the home of the taxi driver who spoke about his children. An unfamiliar culture can become the family who welcomed a visitor to their table.

“That is cultural diplomacy,” St.Ange said. “Not governments telling people to understand one another. But people discovering one another for themselves.”

In a world increasingly encouraged to retreat into camps, he said, tourism does something deceptively simple: it asks people to cross a border and encounter difference firsthand.

“When we are told to fear difference, tourism gives us the opportunity to experience it,” he said.

The numbers are enormous — but they are not the whole story

St.Ange opened his address with figures that underscored the sheer scale of tourism. The World Travel and Tourism Council forecasts that in 2026, travel and tourism will contribute around $12 trillion to the global economy, representing almost 10 percent of global GDP. The sector is also expected to support roughly 376 million jobs, or about one in every nine jobs worldwide.

But he quickly moved beyond the statistics.

Why, he asked, is tourism so often reduced to a scoreboard of arrivals?

Visitor numbers matter, he acknowledged, but they cannot be the only measure of success.

“We also need to ask: How much of the value created by tourism stays in the country? How many local businesses benefit? How many young people find good careers? How much of our culture is protected and celebrated?”

For St.Ange, those questions go to the heart of what tourism should achieve.

The objective should not simply be to bring more people into a destination, but to ensure that tourism creates lasting value for the people and places that receive them.

Connectivity that outlasts the holiday

St.Ange then connected tourism to a broader idea of connectivity, noting that improved air links, maritime routes, roads and digital infrastructure do far more than move visitors.

They connect businesses to markets, families to one another and students to universities.

A new air route, he observed, should not be viewed simply as a tourism statistic. It can become an economic corridor.

“The person who visits as a tourist today may return as an investor tomorrow. A student may return as a researcher.”

For small island states, the stakes are especially high.

St.Ange cited World Bank figures showing that around 21 percent of Seychelles’ GDP and 27 percent of its employment are concentrated in tourism-related industries. The relationship between tourism and national prosperity, he said, is not theoretical. It is visible every day in the hotel worker, the taxi driver, the fisherman supplying a restaurant, the farmer, the musician and the family running a guesthouse.

Tourism, in this context, is not an isolated industry. It is woven into the wider economic and social life of the nation.

How much value actually stays home?

That led St.Ange to a broader question about who benefits from tourism.

The industry, he argued, should be judged not only by how many visitors arrive, but by what remains after they leave.

More value should be retained locally through stronger domestic businesses, better career opportunities for young people, greater participation by communities and a deeper commitment to protecting the culture and natural assets that attract visitors in the first place.

But tourism also depends on the very resources it can damage if poorly managed — beaches, oceans, forests, wildlife, heritage and communities.

“A hotel can be built in a few years. A coral reef takes generations to develop. A tourist can leave tomorrow. The community remains.”

Sustainability is the condition for growth, not its enemy

St.Ange rejected the familiar framing that places environmental protection and economic ambition on opposite sides.

Citing the World Bank’s warning that Seychelles’ GDP could be more than 6 percent lower by 2050 without sufficient action on environmental and climate-related risks, he argued that sustainability is not a constraint on tourism growth. It is what makes continued growth possible.

“The choice is not tourism or the environment. We need both,” he said.

The real question, he suggested, is how destinations can create more value from tourism while placing less pressure on the resources upon which tourism depends.

That means cleaner energy and transport, reduced waste, protected biodiversity and development that remains within a destination’s environmental limits.

But sustainability, he stressed, is not only ecological.

Communities cannot be spectators in their own tourism industry. They must be participants, decision-makers, business owners and beneficiaries.

The same principle applies to culture, he said. Culture “belongs first to the people who live it” and should never be reduced to a product packaged solely for visitors.

Why difference is worth protecting

In one of the address’s sharpest observations, St.Ange warned against the quiet cost of global sameness.

The more connected the world becomes, he argued, the more valuable its differences become.

“People do not usually cross oceans to experience exactly what they have at home,” he said. “The future of tourism should not be about making every destination look the same. It should be about allowing every destination to remain unmistakably itself.”

For St.Ange, authenticity is therefore not simply a tourism marketing concept. It is part of what makes cultural exchange meaningful.

A world in which every destination becomes interchangeable may be highly connected, he suggested, but it would have less to share.

A bridge between nations

Closing his address, St.Ange returned to the central proposition that tourism should be viewed as a form of everyday diplomacy.

“At a time when much of the world is being encouraged to retreat into camps, tourism asks us to cross a border,” he said.

His ambition, he told delegates, should be shared widely: a tourism sector that creates prosperity without sacrificing the future, connects economies without erasing cultures, and opens nations to the world while protecting what makes them unique.

“If we can do that, tourism becomes much more than travel. It becomes diplomacy without a negotiating table. Education without a classroom. Trade with a human face. And ultimately, a bridge between nations — carrying not only travellers, but understanding, opportunity and hope.”

About Alain St.Ange

Ambassador Dr. Alain St.Ange is a Seychelles-born tourism leader whose career spans hotel operations, national tourism marketing, regional destination-building, government leadership and international advocacy.

A former Minister of Tourism and Culture and CEO of the Seychelles Tourism Board, he is a recognised figure on the international speakers circuit and the subject of the biography A Life in Tourism.

He is also a published author whose books — including Alain St.Ange My Journey — An Autobiography, Alain St.Ange My Journey — Life & Times in Politics, Seychelles What Next?, Seychelles The Cry of A People, Alain & Ginette St Ange — Family Ties, and Seychelles Remembers Karl St.Ange — chronicle Seychelles’ history, political evolution, tourism development and family legacy.

His work is driven by a belief that understanding where we come from deepens our appreciation of who we are.

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