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Mauritius: Dangerous contradictions
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L'Express (Port Louis)
25 July 2007
Posted to the web 26 July 2007
Pauline ETIENNE
Port Louis
At least as far as tourism is concerned. Hardly two days after the minister of Tourism gives, in an interview to l'express, his plans for the next few years in his sector, MP Cader Sayed-Hossen announces his democratisation of the industry in a press statement to Le Défi-Plus - which appears to be just the opposite of the minister's vision.
"We do not want to redistribute (wealth created by tourism) but rather create opportunities for more people," said minister Duval in his interview. His approach appears consistent with the recent initiatives of both the public and private sectors to make local products more accessible to tourists. These initiatives just tend to make the biggest possible number of locals benefit from tourist revenue.
However, it seems that Cader Sayed-Hossen, with his laudable objective of democratising the economy, has chosen other ways of reaching the same objective as the minister. He wants to give the opportunity to any Mauritian to obtain shares in hotels. What are the objectives of such an initiative since hotels are already quoted at the Stock Exchange of Mauritius?
But Cader Sayed-Hossen wants to go further by interfering in the way hotels deal with their daily management. The idea is to give tourists the desire to go and see outside. Here again, the idea of allowing the community around the hotel to take advantage of tourists' visits can only serve the country. But the method of the State to interfere into a private institution is not a good signal for potential investors - locally as well as abroad.
The ultimate objective of democratising the economy is not questioned here. But democratising should rather mean giving the opportunity to a greater number of people to create more wealth than simply taking from those who have worked hard to obtain their wealth and giving it to others. This vision might be a bit simplistic but this is exactly the present feeling of many people.
Hotels have not stolen their popularity or success. Many smelled the return on investment such an industry could bring them and decided to do everything they could to achieve this success. Today, Mauritius would never have such a tourist industry if hotels were not there. The popularity of the destination owes a lot to the high quality of hotel services.
We should not make people think that the hospitality operators have just seized the opportunities they had without their success bringing any contribution to the country as a whole. Now, on the pretext that the industry needs to be profitable for all, should we deprive them of the fruits of their investment?
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Of course not! There are other ways of making sure the whole country benefits from tourist revenues and I am sure the government will find them. Anyway, it is certainly not the right timing to put the hoteliers' and potential investors' back up. It would be sad to put one of the largest sources of revenue for the country at stake just for political reasons!
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