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Designing the Future of Tourism: Expanding the access of small operators to new market segments via the existing ICT infrastructure

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Photo: UNDP Mauritius / Stéphane Bellerose.

The Republic of Mauritius, which includes the island of Rodrigues, has improved its Information and Communication Technology infrastructure over the past decade. The country ranked first in Africa in the ITU ICT Development Index 2017, the ITU Global Cybersecurity Index 2018 and the UN e-Government Development Index 2020. During a two-day dialogue held in December 2021, participants were asked whether local MSMEs in the tourism sector could leverage the existing ICT infrastructure to expand their access to senior tourists and to digital nomads by providing them with targeted products and services. Here are the answers obtained.

Silver tourism and medical tourism now and in the future

Currently, 25% of the tourists coming to Mauritius are aged 55+. Given that silver tourists are more prone to medical issues, local institutions in Mauritius need to be able to connect rapidly with the treating physicians or medical centres of these people abroad. The current ICT infrastructure of Mauritius is perfectly capable, as shown during the lockdown periods, of supporting video conferencing and the transfer of large files.

Furthermore, Mauritius has embarked on a major strengthening of the health sector through the establishment of a comprehensive digital health system (e-Health) in the country. The Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) has the objective to improve its services through the definition of an ICT strategy. The aim is to enhance processes and optimize the use of resources with a view to increase the effectiveness and quality of patient care. One important consideration is entering new markets through the provision of novel services. In other words, the e-Health project, with the UNDP Mauritius and Seychelles as a major partner, can eventually provide the building blocks required for the establishment of Medical Tourism as a viable sector of the economy.

It is therefore the right time for forward-looking private operators in the medical sector to provide innovative services to this new market segment. For example, what about providing better signage for travelers? Mauritius is known to have numerous small roads and small villages, which can cause people to get lost from time to time. Physical signage can be installed by the local authorities but, in the era of Google Maps, digital platforms can also provide efficient services.

In this context, a private operator can seize the opportunity to systematically submit detailed and precise information to Google Maps (pins, descriptions, photos or, even reviews). The proper business model needs to be defined, but an interesting aspect is that the ICT infrastructure already exists (connectivity, mobile devices, and Google Maps). It is just a question of properly leveraging them.

Knowing Mauritius and its people better

Tourists, whether seniors or digital nomads, are known to be very open and adventurous. Some travel for the ‘sea, sand and sun’ experience, but many seek different experiences and social interactions with the local population.

Linking a tourist with a beekeeper, a farmer, or a fisher, weeks before the actual trip would allow fruitful and enriching interactions between the visitors and the inhabitants of Mauritius. Photo: UNDP Mauritius / Stéphane Bellerose

In the era of ecological consciousness, an option could be matching tourists with members of the local community at the time of booking of the air ticket. What about linking a tourist with a beekeeper, a farmer, or a fisher, weeks before the actual trip? This would allow the tourist to get a feel of the (real) country while the local will be able to benefit, in many ways, including financially, from this interaction. This novel idea is, as a matter of fact, an extension of the social network and the service could be provided by a local operator. In this case, there is no need to reinvent the wheel as existing social networks, such as Facebook, can be leveraged upon.

In the same way, while there are museums in Mauritius, much is left to be done to propose a coherent “museum experience” to visitors. The same observation applies for the promotion of local artists, whose talent deserve to be exposed in a more methodical manner. There is ample space for another local operator to open a virtual museum of Mauritius and Rodrigues linked to strategically placed QR codes everywhere in the country. One can readily reuse platforms such as YouTube or Facebook to create interesting virtual tableaux vivants for those who are traveling in the country. Mauritius being multicultural also offers many opportunities in the religious tourism space.

Modern technology for better experiences

Doing a presentation on “A brief history of Programming” during the Mauritius Developer Conference 2022.

Well-travelled people are often environment-conscious and familiar to the latest digital technologies, and they want to form part of the “right crowd”. Such tourists aspire to share ideas, knowledge and experiences with the local community. They also seek services and immersive learning experiences for them and their children.

Mauritius has a very well-developed ICT infrastructure, and, with a critical mass of innovators, it can become one of the most forward-thinking destinations in the world. The country can shift its focus from an exclusive ‘sea, sun and sand’ offer towards meaningful and potentially life-changing experiences for visitors. The digital transformation of the tourism sector, through products and services provided by innovative local private operators, can be one of the major enablers towards this vision. The role of small, agile and innovative MSMEs is fundamental and policy measures can be designed to create an enabling environment for them. Naturally, access to finance is also important and it is reassuring to see that, in Mauritius, business angels’ investment structures now also exist.

A proper balance between the traditional and the modern is therefore required. It is interesting to note that this transformation is in line with the new UNDP Strategic Plan, which proposes digitalization, innovation, and novel means of financing as enablers for the years to come.

Standard C++ — Evolution at its best

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Using the right tool at the right moment is the best way to increase productivity. Those who have a thorough knowledge of the different tools in existence (with their key functions and major weaknesses clearly identified) can prove this sentence true. The purpose of this article is to give a brief outline of what C++ is capable to do as a tool, following its recent standardisation.

I wrote this article way back on 25 March 1999, after having joined DCDM Consulting as a Business Analysts, fresh from my Computer Science studies in France, and having had the pleasure and experience of writing a major software in C++ during an internship in a startup called Technodigit in Lyon. Some parts of the article are outdated but most of its content is still relevant after 23 years…

C++ as a programming language

The C++ programming languages was devised by Bjarne Stroustrup in the early eighties as a better C. C++ has a clearer syntax and, as a result of it being object-oriented, was much more adapted to handle complexity.

With time, vendors including Microsoft and Imprise (formerly Borland) customised the language for their needs. In parallel, Bjarne Stroustrup and his colleagues at Bell Labs introduced new features in the language like exception handling, templates and namespaces. As a result, C++ became more complex and therefore more confusing to the programmers. At the beginning of the 90’s, C++ was already a highly powerful tool but so complex that very few people mastered it.

The need for Standard C++

The American National Standards Institution (ANSI) and the International Standards Organisation (ISO) decided therefore to set up a committee to work on a Standard C++ project, with the ideas of purifying the language while adding essential but overlooked features to it. Bjarne Stroustrup quickly joined the committee together with Alexander Stepanov and Meng Lee, destined to become heroes of the C++ community.

The Standard Template Library

Alexander Stepanov and Meng Lee introduced the Standard Template Library (STL) to Standard C++.

STL has a dual personality: it is both a container library (with facilities to handle dynamic arrays, linked lists, trees and so on) and it enables one to program using generic and functional paradigms.

A new way of thinking: containers and iterators

STL defines different kinds of containers such as dynamic arrays, lists and trees together with numerous operations acting on them (like adding and deleting elements). One of the major breakthroughs of STL is the fact that the complexities of these different operations are known and are invariant. Adding an element to the head of a list always takes constant time whatever the size of the list. The programmer can therefore calculate the complexity of his own algorithm based on the published complexities of these STL operations.

The elements of a container are accessed via iterators. These special objects mimic C++ pointers. An algorithm to read all elements of a container must do the following: set an iterator to point to the first element and access the other elements by incrementing the iterator until the end of the container is reached…

When the OO, generic and functional worlds meet: generic algorithms

… which brings us nicely to genericity. Given that all STL containers are accessed through iterators, generic algorithms can be devised which work with all containers (whether dynamic arrays, lists, trees, etc.). The complexity of a generic algorithm depends, of course, on the container on which it is being used. The current version of STL has about 80 generic algorithms including functions such as find, fill, randon-shuffle, sort and reverse among others.

If the programmer decides to implement a new container (e.g. b-trees) having the same semantics of an STL container, all 80 generic algorithms will immediately work as expected thereby greatly increasing productivity by cutting development time. In the same way, writing a new algorithm (e.g. topological_sort) respecting the principle of genericity will enable it work with all STL existing containers.

Function objects

Another breakthrough in STL is to treat functions as objects. They can be passed as arguments to other function objects and can be composed with other function objects. Furthermore, they can be used as higher-order function objets (that is, functions returning functions as result). We can say that well-written STL function objets as just like mathematical functions. Well-written in this context means that the function objects does not have side effects.

This feature enables the functional paradigm to be used in C++. Specifically, composition of function objects can be used as a technique to handle complexity. Each function object (whether written by the programmer or not) can be considered as a component and these can be glued together to solve computing problems. A central repository of function objects can be set up and every time a component having certain behaviours is needed the programmer can check if an equivalent function object exists in this repository. Electronic or civil engineers have used this technique for many years and it is high time that computer engineers start to use it. The immediate benefit is a decrease in development time.

The Way Forward

Standard C++ is a major advancement over C++ just like C++ was over C. Owing to STL, component-based programming is becoming possible. Thinking in terms of containers, generic algorithms and components enables the programmer to concentrate on what is really important for the client: having a working solution for his problem that respects requirements and which is delivered on time. The big question is therefore whether the programming community is ready to embrace this new technology.

In the near future, it is estimated that this leading-edge technology will enable customisation and development of programmes to take up to 40% less time implying faster customer service at lower costs.

What is high inflation and what can we do?

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Inflation is rising all over the world

I am not an economist but I have a family and it is important for us to be financially literate and sound. I have been hearing, for the past few months, that inflation is rising all over the world and is currently at 6.3% in Mauritius according to my own calculations. The last time the rate of inflation was that high in Mauritius was in 2011, eleven years ago.

I am trying to understand what effects a rising inflation will have on the country’s economy but also the economy of a typical household. I am doing that by reading a lot of articles online, watching relevant videos on YouTube as well as participating in a few selected online forums.

Why inflation is so high?

As observed in an article in The Conversation, the population generally feels that COVID-19 is under control and are going out and consuming / purchasing more now.

People are using their own savings made during the pandemic but also the stimulus checks and other pandemic-related aid they obtained from Government.

In some countries, because of the Great Resignation currently happening, companies have had to increase salaries to retain their departing staff. This contributes to an increasing inflation. I don’t think that salaries are increasing in Mauritius yet but I might be wrong…

Consequently, as demand is increasing, sellers are increasing the prices for products and services (and this is what inflation basically is).

The disruptions in shipping and logistics are also contributing to increased prices. There are also chip shortages for important electronic products.

Why high inflation is bad?

High inflation means high prices and poor people will start having difficulties. This is already happening in many countries and can give rise to social unrests.

Companies also suffer when inflation is high as they buy their raw supplies at higher prices. They are forced to sell at a higher price too to keep their profitability (or they need to lower their expectations or decrease production).

If inflation continues increasing, then there is the risk of hyperinflation. This has happened in the past in a few countries.

How does central banks limit inflation?

The best way to control inflation is to incite people and companies not to consume or purchase too much. The way to do that is to increase the interest rates on savings in banks.

Right now, it is around 0.4% per year in Mauritius and, with a 6.3% inflation rate, people have (nearly) zero incentive to save. Better use the money, which will be worth 6.3% less next year, and get the latest car or TV, they say.

The central banks will surely decide to increase the interest rate on savings this year. Of course, people will save more and, hence, the economy will slow down. Similarly, borrowers will have higher interest rates to pay which will also incite them not to borrow too much thereby slowing down the economy even more.

But slowing the economy too much is as dangerous as letting prices increase.

Central banks will definitely have to be careful in their approach.

I am trying to understand what to invest in (securely) in times of high inflation. I will write a post on that. Meantime, please free to offer your suggestions in the comments section.