I have always had a dream about anyone going to any restaurant or pub, at any time, anywhere in the world, eating and drinking to one’s complete satisfaction after choosing from a menu offering an infinite variety of food and drinks, and then leaving without having to pay. Not only that, but the restaurant manager thanks one for the visit and urges you to keep coming. This dream has been realized in the blessed country of Mauritius.

In Quatre-Bornes, there is a restaurant which provides free food and drinks to anyone who cares to set his/ her feet there. Facebook is also on the take and seems to have given this place a worldwide recognition. Increasingly well connected personalities and even people in high and sensitive posts are being seen regularly on the premises of this blessed place. Not only is the food free – not that those who are seen there are unable to foot any food bill – but the drinks are free and the company is superb. What more can one ask for in this island lost in the middle of the Indian Ocean?

The snacks, or “gajacks” as they are commonly known in this island which continues to be a “plaisir” for some, are, I am told, simply out of this world. This per se makes for the incredible popularity of the place. I am sure that this method of service will become the norm and all eating places and drinking holes will follow suit. This development is unavoidable as, like in the Global Business sector, it adds substance to service and this is where salvation lies. Very soon people will learn by word of mouth – especially when the mouth has tasted the free food – about this new exciting restaurant/bar.

The Quatre-Bornes eating place is open till very late at night and the wagging tongues have it that the licence which has been obtained for this kind of service is limitless in terms of opening and closing hours. Mauritius is attempting to have all sorts of “fiestas” to attract tourists. But they have not worked and they will never work for many reasons, the main one being the marketing of Mauritius by the hoteliers as an all Inclusive package destination where the tourist is virtually a prisoner inside the hotel. Besides, any fiesta in the winter months is bound to be a fiasco. But there is still hope. If the Tourist authorities were to market Mauritius as a destination where all food and drinks are at all times free in all the restaurants and bars of Mauritius, we shall see tourists flocking to our shores, or rather to our airport.

What the restaurant/bar in Quatre-Bornes has done is priceless. It has set the tone for a major qualitative progression for the hospitality industry. The time has come for all those who keep moaning about the state of the tourism industry to think out of the “hotel” and, if this cue is acted upon, they will stop blaming Air Mauritius for their losses.