VICTORIA, Seychelles, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Rather than boost tourism in an unselective way to earn badly-needed foreign exchange, Seychelles has vowed to commit itself to developing environmentally-friendly tourism for sustainable economic growth.

    With white sand beaches, blue sky and beautiful tropical scenery, the tiny Indian Ocean island nation attracts hundreds of visitors from all over the world every day, bringing in tens of thousands of hard currency.

    Latest official figures showed that Seychelles, with a land area of only 455 square km scattered over 115 islands, received a record 140,627 tourists in 2006, earning about 200 million U.S. dollars.

    In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Seychelles Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Patrick Georges Pillay the 2006 tourists number represented the maximum capacity Seychelles, with a population of 82,000, could handle due to environmental degradation concern.

    The government policy prefered to carry out a policy to attract what he called "high-level" tourists, namely the rich and richest foreign visitors, Pillay said.

    Seychelles is noted for its sound policy on environmental protection. At 50 percent, it has the largest proportional area of protected land of any nation on Earth.

    Advocating eco-tourism, Seychelles President James Alix Michel once described the country's natural environment as Seychelles' bread and butter, saying environmental degradation meant fewer visitors and less hard currency.

    To provide a more coherent policy framework, the government setup the Seychelles Tourism Marketing Authority (STMA) and the Seychelles Tourist Advisory Board (STAB) in 1999, with the aim of selling the country as an exclusive destination, using the logo "as pure as it gets," and concentrating on the core European market, which accounts for about 80 percent of its business.

    However, the government replaced the STMA with the new Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) in March 2005 for promotion and supervision of tourism establishments, with a hope to boost its strategy of low-volume but high-value tourism by encouraging fresh investment in the luxury sector.

    Seychelles would like to see tourists continue to visit its natural beauty, but the number would not go beyond 200,000 by 2010 due to environmental concerns, Laura Ahtime, director of the National Statistics Bureau, told the media on Wednesday.

    Vice President Joseph Belmont, who is also the minister for tourism, warned that too many tourists on the islands, saying Seychelles planned to attract tourists while ensuring that the sustainability of the industry was not compromised.