PMSD ‘forgives’ Tourism Minister Michael Sik Yuen his ‘misbehaviour’

SACKING OF MTPA CHAIRMAN CALLED ‘MISBEHAVIOUR’ BY MINISTER’S PARTY

The recent sacking of Robert Desvaux from his position as Chairman of the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority by the island’s Minister of Tourism Michael Sik Yuen has been described by the party spokesperson as the minister having ‘misbehaved [but] after presenting his excuses everything has come back to normal within the PMSD party’.

The sacking has left many tourism observers and stakeholders in Mauritius puzzled as Desvaux is known to enjoy the close confidence of his party leader, Xavier Luc-Duval, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister in the coalition government and a sharper reaction was expected by the party over the clearly unilateral and apparently uncoordinated action taken by Yuen.

The announcement a few days ago that the country’s tourism arrival figures have in 2012 only grown by the most meager of margins, namely 0.1 percent, and failed to reach the 1 million mark, leaving Mauritius trailing in the wake of the Maldives which took over the leadership in terms of tourism arrivals for the Indian Ocean islands, had many wondering if not demanding that deeper cuts and changes are now needed, clearly aimed at embattled Karl Mootoosamy who is the CEO of MTPA and now often referred to as the ‘Copy/Paste Karl’ after several attempts to ultimately unsuccessfully copycat Seychelles’s festivals of Carnival and SUBIOS and throw spanners in the works of the Vanilla Island cooperation between the other Indian Ocean islands of La Reunion, Madagascar, Mayotte and the Comoros with Seychelles. A source in Port Louis hinted there may be changes on the way no matter how desperately Mr. Mootoosamy is clinging to his job but not expected to take place before the upcoming ITB in Berlin. Watch this space.