Recently, there were pitched battles between the Security people at Ile aux Cerfs – which is claimed by the Touessrok Hotel as its exclusive property – and bouncers linked to those who have for years been providing “grillade” services to tourists and Mauritians. This kind of story is terrible publicity for the hospitality industry. What is trumpeted as a “plaisir” destination can unravel with such incidents.

There are some root causes for such disturbances. The hotel industry in Mauritius markets its products on an all-inclusive package. What this really means is that the tourist who decides to stay in a particular hotel will have his breakfast and all his meals at that hotel and whatever excursions etc which he may want to have will also be part of the hotel package. In effect the tourist becomes a prisoner in a gilded environment.

When the tourist remains within the hotel complex he has no contact with what some people would wish to term “île Maurice profonde”. Never mind that this term cannot mean much in view of the exiguity of our territory. Besides, the hotel will provide its own shops, beauty parlour and any other service which the tourist might require.

The other problem is that the beach hotels are sprawling establishments so that any tourist who would wish to go out for visits or shopping has to walk kilometres before he can have access to the road. At present, tourists who go on the Internet to fi nd out about our country are already aware that tourists are regularly attacked by gangs. Maybe the Prime Minister should get his security apparatus to track these gangs rather than tracking what they are presently tracking.

On account of the set-up of the hotels and their insistence on all-inclusive packages, Mauritius has been unable to develop quality restaurants. Had the all-inclusive packages been banned, we could have had world famous restaurant chains.

But everything seems straight-jacketed. A tourist who takes a taxi will be taken to where the taxi driver will earn a commission. The system is rotten. What this country needs is a fresh approach regarding the way that we market this destination. Give freedom to the tourist to go where he wants to without being chaperoned by the hotel where he stays. Itmakes no sense that the place where the tourist is taken to have lunch when he is on an excursion is also sold to him at the time that he is booking his holiday. This vertical approach which is invariably used by the hotel is against the wider public interest. The hotels even go to such lengths as providing unlimited amounts of local alcoholic drinks to entice them to stay.

Tourism belongs to all of us and not only to the hotels. What has happened at Ile aux Cerfs will happen elsewhere on account of the short-sightedness of the hoteliers. Mauritius is not like the Maldives where the tourist is stuck on an island or islet. There he has no choice. But Mauritius has numerous possibilities to cater for the tourist, provided he is set free. Let us avoid a repeat of bouncers settling this kind of hospitality scores.