MAURITIUS JOINS THE SEYCHELLES CARNIVAL BANDWAGON – AT LAST
(Posted 16th March 2015)
All is well which ends well came to mind when confirmation was received that finally, at the fifth Seychelles Carnival, will Mauritius be represented with an official delegation and participate in the juggernaut of carnivalistas who will throng the island at the end of April.
The confirmation was reportedly given during a meeting of the Mauritius Deputy Prime Minister who is also the Minister of Tourism, The Right Honourable Xavier-Luc Duval and Seychelles’ Minister for Tourism and Culture Alain St. Ange at the recently concluded ITB 2015.
The decision will bring to an end a four year absentia, largely driven by the now clearly out of favour head of the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority, one Karl Mootoosamy, and the former tourism minister Michael Sik Yuen. The latter proved to be a fence sitter par excellence when it came to matters concerning the Vanilla Island cooperation, largely as a result of being entangled in Mootoosamy’s web of anti Seychelles sentiments but the regime change after the last general election in Mauritus put paid to all that.
While private participation from Mauritius in the Seychelles’ Carnival was always warmly welcomed by local authorities and acknowledged by often thunderous applaus of the crowds lining Victoria’s streets during the parade, and Mauritius’ media represented in large numbers, will the 2015 edition for the first time see a formal participation. The Carnival is one of the Vanilla Island’s main showcase events and other island members too have selected their own key festivals or exhibitions for support from the other member countries.
The Mauritius media have already welcomed the move and will no doubt report from the Seychelles at the end of April with renewed gusto, now that they will be able to showcase their own island’s performance during the carnival parade and related events.
