The Island D e v e l o p m e n t Company (IDC) has signed
another deal for tourism on Farquhar Island. A company based in the UK
specialising in fishing holidays, FlyCastaway, is now advertising packages
offering a week’s stay on the island together with fishing, for the coast of
US$7000 per person. These are offered for groups of 10, putting the weekly
turnover at $70,000.
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| Prices have increased |
These offers are being made to prospective clients all over
the world, putting Farquhar tourism on a larger scale than it has been. How
much the IDC will get out of this is not known yet but it can be expected to
beat the $30,000 per week it has been getting from Mauritian tourists for
years.
The new arrangement starts in February 2011, according to
the advertisement. But this comes without the questions on Farquhar tourism
being answered.
The first question is whether the island’s tourism business
is legal and compliant with standards in the industry. IDC chief executive
Glenny Savy has admitted that the establishment there does not have a licence.
He has said this is not necessary because it is primarily a rest house intended
for government officials or even other Seychellois who want to spend time
there. But, we have never heard of such guests for Farquahar while groups of
Mauritian tourists paying $3000 each have been regular.
After the mysterious disappearance of Mauritian Felix Maurel
last year, the IDC has not come up with any assurances on the safety of
visitors. Should it expand its activities without better safeguards?
FlyCastaway obviously intends to enlarge the scale of
fishing that tourists can do. It offers both fly-fishing from the flats and
sand bars and also fishing in the waters of the lagoon for grouper, tuna,
sailfish and marlin. It will bring in four motorized skiffs for, in ots own
words, “unleashing the offshore opportunities that await there”.
Obviously, this is on a much bigger scale than has been
going on. But who gets the money? IDC executive Glenny Savy has never given any
clear answer on how the money collected from Mauritian visitors over the past
years has been accounted for. Auditors are supposed to be looking closely at the
accounts of state-owned companies, but this part remains obscure.
If IDC is to engage in tourism on the islands it manages, it
must do so within the rules and standards of the industry and with full
transparency. Until it does that, its dealings will remain questionable.
Source: Regar 7-9-10
