The Ministry of Culture of Mauritius is saying that it will not be participating at the 2014 edition of the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands Carnival that takes place in the Seychelles at the end of April.
Minister M. Choonee, it is believed, will be writing to his Seychellois counterpart to say that Mauritius will not be present. This breaking news was published in the L'Express Newspaper of Mauritius during the weekend.
This news has again prompted the island's tourism private sector to open fresh dialogue on them being present to promote tourism through culture and in so doing putting the Mauritian Artists in the forefront. "This approach by the private sector will be a slap in the face of true MTPA of Mauritius" said a hotel personality of the island.
"The whole world is using this carnival to fly their flag and increase the visibility of their destination in front of the large number of international media" said another hotel GM.
The big debate in Mauritius is now for the island's private sector trade to bypass their MTPA and move by themselves. Many believe that if they can pull this off the MTPA will be sidelined for good as they take more marketing initiative by themselves.
A Mauritius artist said on his part that they are waiting for this initiative to be taken. "We often feel that our island is ashamed to be associated with local artists. We see Miss England being pushed but not Miss Mauritius. We believe that no country has the right to be ashamed of their people and this is why we salute the private sector of Mauritius to try to bring us to the carnival in Seychelles" the artist who is believed to be working on a carnival song said.
