We were somewhat surprised to discover that Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has become a two-way street for Mauritius. Not only are European call centre jobs coming to our shores but the work of the Mauritian Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) is being outsourced to the UK – more precisely to the hopeful candidates of the Miss England beauty contest. The MTPA has taken our idea of offering a free holiday to pageant winners one step further by requiring them to promote Mauritius as part of the competition. Brilliant!
In fact we were contacted by one of the contestants, who asked us to write a short note in this blog. Eisha is half Indian-half Irish and represents the county of Norfolk. She is familiar with the local Mauritian community through her parents who both work in psychiatric care (hmmm…). She has been fundraising for charity at the same time as introducing people to Mauritian cuisine by selling massepain cakes door-to-door and cooking curry for her workmates.
Who gets to decide which candidate has brought the most publicity to Mauritius? MTPA Director Dr Karl Mootoosamy. It seems that he is unwilling to outsource that task. Anyway good luck Eisha!