John
Thanks for this exercise, which I have not been doing for quite some time.
Anyway hope this will help for your databases.
1. Hotels and Meeting Room
Mauritius has hosted several International conferences, seminars, Infotechs,
etc. and has all the structures in the one town called Grand Bay, in the
North coast of Mauritius , where we have several hotels, many of which have
between 200 and 300 rooms.
One of these is the Maritime Hotel www.webltd.com/maritim which has nearly
200 rooms and several conference rooms, one of which can accomodate up to
350 people.
Another one is the Le Mauricia www.beachcomber.co.za which is close to the
main centre of Grand Bay, a few minutes walking distance from a big
conference hall which can hold more than 2000 people, with catering
facilities. More details on this hopefully tomorrow.
A third one is the Colonial www.iblgroup.com/colonialhotels which is still
cheaper. (Around $50 per night). Conversion rate: $1 = Rs 28 Mauritian).
Around Grand Bay we can find lots of Villas/Bungalows. These are favourites
of Mauritians. A 3-room bungalow would cost around $50 per night.
Hotel prices range from $50 to $ 150 per night inclusive of breakfast and
dinner. Prices are negotiable and are cheaper for groups of 50 or above.
2. Internet Bandwidth
Mauritius is one of the most advanced countries in the African region in the
IT field. Our telecommunication network is under the charge of the Mauritius
Telecom which has France Telecom as partner as from last year. We are
already on ISDN and Optical fibre.
According to one of my ex-students, now an engineer at Mauritius Telecom,
our ISP (Telecom Plus) already has 2 outbound bandwidth each of 2 Mbits, one
towards USA and one towards France, since 1999. This I believe is equivalent
to an E1 (which is much more than an E3 - correct me if I am mistaken).
3. Electricity
We have very modern and efficient Electricity Network (nearly 100 % coverage
of the island). Most of our main industries ( textile, hotels, sugar
factories), require a 24 hr service and one can hardly ever complain about
the Central Electricity Board. 25 % of the Mauritian population possess a PC
and of these 70% are already on the internet and one can see computers in
our most remote villages.
4. Air flights
There are several daily flights from Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa.
Airliners include Air Mauritius, British Airways, Air France, Singapore
Airlines, South African Airways, Condor (Lufthansa).
According to my information every week, there are at least 7 flights from
Paris, 5 flights from London, 2 flights from Rome, 1 flight from Brussels,
and 2 flights flights from Frankfurt, that makes a total of 17 flights from
Europe. Flights last usually 12 hours non-stop and cost around $700- $1000.
We also have 4 flights from Singapore(6 hrs) , 1 from Kuala Lumpur, 2 from
Hong Kong, 1 from Australia, 5 from India (5 hrs), 4 from South Africa.
That make a total of at least 34 flights (nearly 7000 passengers) per week