My partner and I returned to the United Kingdom from Mauritius on February 29th 2004. We spend three weeks on your island and had a wonderful holiday. The spirit and the warmth of the people made it an even more exceptional place to visit. We are frequent travellers and, in particular, favour the Indian Ocean. It was our first time in Mauritius.

So many islands in this world have been ruined by development and one can see that in Mauritius, this is being kept to a minimum (we desperately hope so, as we were not able to see the entire island); however, something was brought to our attention that deeply disturbed us. We were told that a lot of your historic buildings are being torn down for development. We cannot make this point strong enough : one of the redeeming features of this island is its architecture. The colonial buildings are beautiful and I can assure you this is what tourists want especially when they are from developed nations. We, from Europe do not need to see any more concrete square modern buildings ! To do away with its historical buildings is nothing other than sheer destruction and a disgrace. Not only to the people of Mauritius but to your tourist industry.

It is very easy to travel to the myriad of ruined islands across this world ; it seems that they are all going the same way.Why doesn?t Mauritius do something different and keep its historical past alive. Preserve its history while developing a tourist industry with sympathy for its environment.

We were visiting Vacoas and by chance stumbled across the school buildings along the road to the Police Quarters, as we carried on walking, we discovered some beautiful colonial houses, we went in to have a look, we were told these are now used for the Army and also are police quarters. They were magnificent! The area was so peaceful and what a joy to see these lovely buildings intact ! It is our opinion that, if these buildings were restored and a small café was put in, it would be a place of great interest to tourists, let alone a place for children to know and understand their history.

We were staying at the Hilton Wolmar and, as comfortable as it was, it did not give us a true account or experience of what Mauritius really is, so as tourists to any country,we always try experience the country and its real life as best as possible, we travel on public transport, which I may add was very good and very prompt, if not a little frightening at the speed of the drivers. We try to eat from local restaurants and vendors and generally just enjoy the local surroundings. To remotely destroy the little that is left of these beautiful buildings is a horrendous mistake and would be very foolish on the government?s part.

I would like to draw to your attention to an island called Chumba off the coast of Africa. It is a much smaller island than Mauritius but tourists will spend a lot of money to stay on this island to experience a place which has not been devastated by the 21st Century?s dealings of destruction, especially in its quest for tourism.

Mauritius could be one of the forward thinking islands, one that ensures that its environment will never be compromised for the sake of money and profit. This ethic is the way forward for tourism and the islands that adopt this will always be the destination which people will keep coming back to. In closing, we would like to recommend a guest house called The Nilaya in Flic-en-Flac. We stayed there for a few days upon our arrival. It was a real pleasure and the proprietors gave us a true sense of Mauritian warmth and hospitality.

We look forward to hearing your views in regard to this letter and what your policies are in preserving your country?s heritage.

Miss D. OSBORNE