/ 24 January 2011

Has Mauritius lost its allure?

It is sad and ironic that the Irish Independent featured Mauritius in an article last week headlined “The ultimate destination for newlyweds”, shortly before Michaela McAreavey’s murder, apparently by thieves she disturbed in her hotel room.

The article highlighted the fact that Michaela (27), a former Rose of Tralee contestant, and her new husband, John McAreavey (30), an accountant and Gaelic footballer, were staying at the five-star Legends resort in the fishing village of Grande Gaube.

The beach hotel was voted the number one destination among Irish honeymooners last year. Although three male employees of Legends were quickly arrested and provisionally charged with murder, Mauritius will have its work cut out to regain its reputation as a safe honeymoon and wedding destination.

Numerous journalists have descended on Mauritius since the murder and several features have appeared in British newspapers on the theme “paradise lost”. An article in the Independent on Saturday, “The Dark Side of a Paradise Island”, claimed that violent crime, fuelled by drink, drugs and poverty, had increased significantly.

The writer said that one reason he had left Mauritius for good was that “my girlfriend had been robbed and attacked on the way to her early morning swim in the beautiful Indian Ocean at Flic en Flac, a tourist hot spot.”

Safe destination
Susie Freeman, founder of Susie Freeman Travel, which provides packages to Mauritius and other Indian Ocean destinations, disagreed: “I always emphasise what a safe destination this is and hope that this is a deeply tragic and one-off incident.”

Certainly, this is the first time a tourist has been killed in Mauritius. McAreavey had returned to her hotel room while her husband had remained in the restaurant to take in the spectacular view of the bay. She put up a fierce struggle, but apparently died after an attacker throttled her to stop her screaming.

Mauritians working in the tourism industry are very concerned. The country’s global reputation as a high-end destination is at stake — not only in the eurozone but also in the new markets of China, India and Russia that are being targeted. Last November, at the World Travel awards in London, Mauritius was voted the “world’s best island destination” and a big dividend was expected.

Wedding and honeymoon tourism has been an important factor in driving up national income — at $12 356 a head, the sixth highest in Africa — because it helped create Mauritius’s image as an Indian Ocean “paradise island”.

Mauritian business and political leaders are well aware that favourable foreign perceptions are important for other economic sectors, such as real estate and financial services, as the country attempts to position itself as the gateway between the new growth economies of Africa and Asia.

Rapid social change of the sort Mauritius has experienced, especially in the past 20 years, is often disruptive. Certain opportunistic crimes, especially pilfering, burglary, assault and muggings, increase as the controls traditionally exercised by communities and extended families weaken.

Pressure on politicians in Mauritius’s democracy is intensifying now that the island’s international reputation is felt to be at stake. Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam’s call recently for the restoration of the death penalty for those convicted of murder in his country is a sign of the times. — Guardian News & Media 2011