Letter to the Editor-‘Refusal of access’ issue calls for more debate and consideration |26 July 2013

I personally welcome this statement as I have received many complaints by Seychellois of different walks of life concerning their refusal of access to certain hotels in the country.

In the greater picture of things, the happiness and contentment of the Seychellois people must be the ultimate aim of any tourism or government policy. There can be no justification, economic or otherwise, for any policy or practice which vitiates the overriding imperative of promoting and consolidating a culture of harmony within the Nation.

However, the issue is more complicated in practice than one may primarily assume. For one, there is unfortunately a big problem of alcohol and other abuses which very often results into unreasonable, if not, offensive behaviour. There is also the prevalence of petty thieving which is illustrated on a daily basis by the nature of cases which are brought to the Magistrates attention.

Then, there is the prevalence of a confusing dressing code in the country. For example, at a recent conference, some participants were dressed in long shirts with a tie, another in a long shirt without a tie who was seated next to someone in a t-shirt, who was himself seated next to someone in a suit. Certainly, with its international clientele, a hotel must be allowed to decide on its dressing code. Many people look forward to dinner as it provides them and their spouse with the opportunity to dress in style and fashion and they would not be happy to have next to them a couple in swimwear!

Obviously, the issue needs more debate and consideration so that we can finally come up with an overall policy that can command the support of the general community as well as that of hotels management.

I would like to recall that during my presidency, we said ‘no’ to a Club Mediterrané Resort because their strict exclusivity policy would have given rise to many allegations of discrimination in our multi-coloured society. All told, we must also be mindful that there is a tendency in our society for some who are of nuisance value to cry “colour bar” whenever they are disciplined.
 
James R. Mancham