Mauritius tourism islands speak of desire to work together as Seychelles Minister welcomes new Tourism Minister of Mauritiuss
Almasalla, ATP News- Mauritian Press and e-Turbo News have published articles on the desire of the Seychelles and Mauritius to work together in the filed of tourism. The recent elections in Mauritius swept a new Government into power, and the island’s new Cabinet of Ministers sees the Hon Xavier-Luc Duval, the Deputy Prime Minister of Mauritius also take over the tourism portfolio. This act in elevating the tourism portfolio to the office of the Deputy Prime Minister shows the importance of tourism for the island’s new Government.
The move has been welcomed by tourism operators who had been struggling in the past couple of years. Michael Sik Yuen was the former Minister of Tourism of Mauritius is one of the casualties of the last elections who lost his electoral seat.
Speaking to Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture he said that he welcomed the appointment of Xavier-Luc Duval as the one holding the tourism portfolio in Mauritius. "Mr Duval is well known to us in Seychelles. I remember well sitting with him in a meeting with Joseph Belmont, the former Vice President of Seychelles in London at the World Travel Market when I was still CEO of the Seychelles Tourism Board.In the past years I have seen and met with Mr Duval on several occasions and only this week I wrote to Mr Duval to congratulate him on his electoral victory and for taking over the tourism portfolio" the Seychelles Minister said.
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Mr St.Ange said that he wrote to the Mauritian Deputy Prime Minister on his personal email address, and also through the official diplomatic channels. When asked what he told the Deputy Prime Minister of Mauritius Mr St.Ange said that the following his message to Mr Duval:-
"We are writing to firstly congratulate you on your electoral victory and to say that we welcomed the news that you had also taken over the tourism portfolio.
Anne Lafortune, my PS for Tourism and Sherin Naiken, my CEO of the Tourism Board join me in welcoming you as the new Minister of Tourism of Mauritius, and together we say that we are looking forward to working with you for the consolidation of the tourism industry of our respective islands and of our Indian Ocean Region.
Mr Deputy Prime Minister we look forward to meeting with you officially in the coming months, and see how we can together plan common strategies to grow the tourism cake of our region.
We want to end by reassuring you that we remain willing and able to work with you and Mauritius for the benefit of the islanders of both Mauritius and Seychelles and also of the member states of the Vanilla Islands" ,
Seychelles Minister St.Ange, who is Minister responsible of both Tourism and Culture said that he also wrote to the Hon Dan Baboo, the new Mauritian Minister responsible for the Arts and Culture saying "We are writing to firstly congratulate you on your electoral victory and to say that we welcomed the news that you had also taken over the Arts & Culture portfolio. Benjamine Rose, my PS for Culture join me in welcoming you as the new Minister of the Arts and Culture of Mauritius, and together we say that we are looking forward to working with you for the consolidation of the Arts & Culture industry of our respective islands and of our Indian Ocean Region. Minister we look forward to meeting with you officially in the coming months, and see how we can together plan common strategies to consolidate the creative and performing arts of our islands. We want to end by reassuring you that we remain willing and able to work with you and Mauritius for the benefit of the islanders of both Mauritius and Seychelles" ,
On what he felt would be the reaction by the Mauritian Deputy Prime Minister, the Seychelles Minister said that he had already received a reply from Mr Duval that state his willingness to work together because our islands complement each other in the context of the Vanilla islands.
