Planetarium planned for Mauritius

(eTN) – Information was received from Mauritius that funding has been secured to construct and equip a planetarium on the island, supposedly the first in this part of the world, which when complete will be open for research but also local and tourist visitors interested to see the stars of the Southern Hemisphere.

The new facility is to be put up on the grounds of the existing Rajiv Ghandi Science Centre on Mauritius, after all the funds were given as a grant by India.

The planetarium will be able to have up to 120 visitors come inside at a go and two stakeholders in the tourism sector have already expressly stated their support for the project to this correspondent, saying in unison that such an added attraction will be good for Mauritius tourism by drawing in more visitors.

It is also understood that now that the funding has been secured, final plans are being put together before a public tender for the construction and equipment will be issued, hoping that construction can start still within 2012, with a completion date of approximately 18 months.

Meanwhile, media representatives and visitors to the Seychelles’ and La Reunion hosted “Carnival International de Victoria” have raised the question with their 15 colleagues who came from fellow Vanilla Islands’ Mauritius as to why no official delegation from the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) was present in Victoria for the event, which saw an entire charter plane from La Reunion bring in the largest foreign delegation for the event. Notably, the Mauritius press representatives shrugged off the question, throwing up their hands as if to say, ‘”Who the heck knows why,” before then letting it be known off the record that their opinion of the MTPA was not exactly the best. Perhaps next year in 2013, for which the Seychelles Tourism Board CEO, Alain St.Ange, has already indicated that the festival will have three co-hosts instead of two, and maybe as many as 5 – but will Mauritius be among them?