Saint Helena Taps Weill for Tourist Pitch

Saint Helena, which is among the world’s most remote populated islands, has hired travel specialist Geoffrey Weill Assocs. to help put it on the tourism map.

Located in the South Atlantic, the 47-sq. mile volcanic island is 1,200 miles from Africa and 1,800 miles from South America. Population is about 4,500.

Uninhabited when discovered in 1502 by Portuguese explorers, Saint Helena fell under British rule in 1657.

Napoleon Bonaparte generated buzz for Saint Helena after he was exiled there following his defeat at Waterloo in 1815.  He died there in 1821.

Weill told the Travel Daily News site that he became fascinated with Saint Helena after reading Simon Winchester’s “The Sun Never Sets: Travels to the Remaining Outposts of the British Empire” about three decades ago.

Until 2017, the British Overseas Territory was accessible every three weeks via a five-day voyage from Cape Town on a Royal Mail ship. Regular flights from Johannesburg will begin this year.