Mauritius: prime tourist destination

WITH PURE white sandy beaches and warm tropical water, it is not hard to understand why the island nation of Mauritius is one of Africa’s prime tourist destinations.

Tourism minister Nando Bodha did a number of interviews yesterday in a bid to reassure potential visitors that Mauritius was safe.

“This is the first time that something like this has happened here,” he said. “Those who have been to Mauritius know that it is a peaceful place . . . The people of Mauritius are shocked. We share the distress and sadness of the family.”

Mr Bodha said he had spoken to the police commissioner and expected the case to progress rapidly.

The importance of the tourist trade to this island in the Indian Ocean cannot be overstated.

Along with the textile, sugar and finance industries, it is one of the cornerstones of the country’s economy, regarded as one of the strongest in Africa. The Central Statistics Office in Mauritius expects that when figures for 2010 are tallied, they will show that 920,000 people visited Mauritius last year. The island’s population is estimated at 1.3 million.

Over the past 10 years, it has become a common honeymoon spot for newlyweds from all over the globe. The government and tourism sector have been advertising Mauritius heavily in the international media in recent months as a warm weather destination for the Christmas period in a bid to counteract the negative effects of the global recession.

Local and international hotel chains located across the island have also been offering significant discounts to try and entice people to their rooms.

For a long time, crime in Mauritius was not considered a major problem, as it was mainly petty incidents such as pickpocketing, drunken and disorderly and traffic offences. However, a number of high-profile robberies, assaults and murders against foreigners and locals have occurred in recent years.

South African Helgaard Botha, who lived in Mauritius between 2005 and 2009 and worked as a property developer before moving back to Durban, said the perception among the expatriate community was that violent crime was on the increase.

“Of late there have been a couple of high-profile murders taking place and there have been well- publicised incidents of tourists being attacked or robbed,” he said.

“So this type of crime does appear to be on the rise – but while I was there I found it to be a very safe place.”

In March last year, Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told parliament that statistics for 2009 showed crime was falling. There were 96 murders on the island in 2009.

Mr Ramgoolam added that even though statistics indicated a downward trend in crime, the perception remained on the island that the law and order situation was deteriorating. “This could well be due to the fact that some crimes have been perpetrated in a most horrible manner and therefore given a lot of publicity,” he said.