Nilen Venkadasamy is no longer and can no longer be the President of the MTPA. He has held this position since his appointment on 14th February 2020. In a message on his personal account on Facebook, he has announced that he is leaving the MTPA but he is proud and immensely satisfied with his contribution of the private and public sectors in tourism, which is an unprecedented achievement, according to him.
His message
He believes that he is no longer in a position to do this job. The lawyer, Nilen Vencadasamy circulated that he refuses any extension or renewal of his mandate as the President of the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority.
On the social networks, Nilen Vencadasamy, the defeated MSM candidate of the Constituency n°1, GRNO/Port-Louis West, during the last legislative elections, has announced that “It has been an honor and a privilege to be at the head of the Tourism Promotion Authority during such a decisive period in the history of our country. And I must say that I am quite proud of all of our efforts to achieve my vision of what the industry should be: a UNITED industry – no pun intended… I leave the presidency with the enormous satisfaction of having personally contributed to the construction of a strong partnership between the public and private sectors, which is in fact an unprecedented achievement. We have been able to forge this partnership together through the most difficult times and my only wish is that this synergy will flourish regardless of individuals. We have been busy building the reboot strategy together, since our first joint committee meetings in March 2020, and the early signals are there to confirm that we will have a fantastic year ahead…”
His record at MTPA
Nilen Vencadasamy has been responsible for various solutions in the promotion of Mauritius through communication and traditional and digital marketing. He brought together all the leaders in the tourism sector for collaboration during the crushing period of the pandemic. He was leading the negotiations in the marketing contract with Liverpool Football Club in late October 2020. A contract of about Rs 400 million was paid by the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority for one advertisement per Liverpool match for three years. He supervised several national, regional and international campaigns in preparation for the grand reopening on 1st October 2021 and lately, he has also been among the main negotiators to get Mauritius off France’s “Scarlet Red” list.
Difficult relations behind?
The former President of the MTPA attests that “I am quite proud of all of our efforts to achieve my vision of what the tourism industry should be”. However, anonymous sources from the MTPA attribute his resignation as “hasty” following a series of “misunderstandings and difficult relations with the VPM and Minister of Tourism, Steeven Obeegadoo”. His absence was noted during the presentation “Relaunching Tourism As One Mauritius”, the 2022 tourism strategies focused on demand versus supply and inter-country connectivity issues, presented by the VPM where the latter announced that the objective is to reach the figure of one million tourists by the end of 2022. Currently the number of arrivals for the month of February is 52,000. This goal will carry the active participation of the Ministry of Finance, the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) which will promote the Premium Visa that gives access to a minimum stay of one year in Mauritius.
