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The Seychelles PA System currently consists of 25 PAs (terrestrial, marine and combined) totaling 55,769 ha. The Seychelles National Park Authority (SNPA) is a parastatal organization primarily responsible for managing 8 national parks (IUCN category II PAs) in the Inner Islands, which currently represent 11% of the PA estate. The authority manages some of the most visited sites (Curieuse, Cocos Island, St. Anne Marine Park) in Seychelles, which received 62,205 paying visitors in 2012. Some areas of the terrestrial national park of Morne Seychellois (Mare aux Cochons, Copolia, la Mission, Anse Major) are also well visited by a large but non-quantified numbers of non-paying visitors. Tourism in a significant industry for Seychelles and directly contributed SCR 3,525.6mn (21.3% of total GDP) in 2014, growing by 10% in 2015 [|[1]], and due to rise by 4.9% pa, from 2015-2025, to SCR 6,030.7mn (24.7% of total GDP) in 2025. It directly supported 10,500 jobs (22.9% of total employment). This is expected to rise by 2.5% pa to 14,000 jobs (28.1% of total employment) in 2025. (WTTC, 2015). Quarterly surveys conducted by the Seychelles National Bureau of Statistics with international tourists estimated that in 2015 between 38% and 56% visited marine parks and/or Morne Seychellois (NBS, 2016). Visitor arrivals are also expected to grow by 10% in 2016 [|[2]]. SNPA is a budget dependent organization, provided with a fixed Treasury allocation from government each year to meet all its expenses, including salaries and running costs. All revenue generated by SNPA is returned to central government budgets. However, in 2014 and 2015 SNPA’s revenue collection exceeded its received budget, mainly resulting from tourism entrance fees. However, few value-adding products and services are currently offered by SNPA. This represents an opportunity for SNPA to review the opportunities to strengthen the types and quality of tourism experiences offered to visitors.
 * ===== Duties and Responsibilities ===== ||
 * The sustainable tourism expert will be expected to conduct the following activities:
 * Literature review of key tourism documents and statistics relevant to the Seychelles, including the Tourism Department for latest information (2 days);
 * Interviews with public sector institutions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in tourism to understand how SNPA could improve tourism in their PAs (2 days);
 * Interviews with private sector businesses that currently utilise SNPA PAs (e.g. boat operators, hotels bordering PAs sites, tour operators and guides) to understand their current experiences of SNPA sites, options to improve the sustainability and diversification of tourism products as well as possible partnership opportunities with private businesses (PPPs) (3 days);
 * On-site assessments to evaluate the quality and deficiencies of the current tourism products and services at key sites (5 days);
 * Design a tourist satisfaction survey to determine their opinions of existing SNPA sites and experiences as well as determine possible demand for future products and services that are in line with the principles of sustainable development (1 day); A separate local institution will be contracted to manage and implement customer surveys in SNPA sites;
 * Analyse data from the tourism satisfaction survey conducted by the separate local institution (2 days);
 * Undertake a capacity assessment of SNPA's tourism expertise, identifying capacity gaps and training needs (1 day, included within on-site assessments);
 * Evaluate SNPA’s entrance fee collection and reporting system, identifying opportunities to improve its efficiency (1 day, included with on-site assessments);
 * Combine the above results into a draft report (3 days);
 * Conduct a workshop with SNPA staff to present the preliminary findings of the draft report (1 day);
 * Incorporate comments received into a final report; the report will include a detailed implementation plan for tourism within SNPA (2 days).