So many things to celebrate this week. First, the launch of the Metro Express tramway from Curepipe to Port Louis and the tourism figures disclosed by Deputy Prime Minister Steven Obeegadoo: tourists are staying longer, he said, and are spending more.

When the country does well, everyone benefits. So, any positive development is likely to result in the satisfaction of citizens, no matter what their political affiliation is. Only anti-patriots welcome bad news.

Good news has, however, to be looked at in context, without losing sight of the big picture. Otherwise, we end up in a continuous firefighting mode, with a series of knee-jerk reactions giving the impression of having solved one problem while creating a much bigger and longer lasting one.

Let’s forget for the time being about the tramway’s extension to Curepipe, that has choked the arteries of the towns it criss-crosses by reducing their roads to a single lane. Let’s forget about the massive debts contracted in US Dollars to pay for the railway, its financial viability and the consequent capacity to pay back. Let us concentrate on the good news in tourism announced by Obeegadoo. Even here, let’s humour him and forget that there may be more tourists visiting the country but that they are not necessarily spending more. The five star hotels are offering all-inclusive packages and there is little out there left for the small entrepreneur who is desperate to make ends meet. Let’s also forget that the purported increased spending is due to the depreciation of the rupee during the period he is referring to rather than to tourists indulging themselves.

What worries me in all this is the fact that everything seems to be done piecemeal, with little regard for the bigger picture. That bigger picture requires that our political leaders climb up to the top of the mountain and look down at the valley where we live our everyday lives. A birds-eye view would have clearly given a new perspective to those with ultimate responsibility for designing our tramway tracks, roads and flyovers. It is clear that so many pitfalls could have been avoided had they done so.

As far as tourism is concerned, there is so much focus on new flights – which are undoubtedly very important as no access means no tourists. However, no one is focussing on the details that make tourists have a good lasting picture of our destination and want to come again.

The first and last impression a tourist gets when they visit our country is at the airport. A quick visit to our terminal brings tears to the eyes of anyone who cares about this country. The extensive stains on the beige carpets are so disgraceful they make anyone cringe in disgust. These are not small stains of some liquid having been dropped on the carpets, waiting to be cleaned. They represent grime that has been engrained there for years. I wonder how many times the carpets have been shampooed in the last 10 years!

The business and first class lounge, once the pride and joy of the airport, now resembles an overpriced small town cafeteria. One shower out of two is out of order, one toilet is not working and the hand drier hasn’t been functioning for a long time. It has been replaced by a box of thin facial tissues which disintegrate as soon as they touch your wet hands. And anyone, however hungry, who can eat the food on offer there deserves a prize for patriotism!

These are the first and lasting pictures we offer our tourists. This is our image as a country. Is this how we want to attract more tourists, particularly from the United Arab Emirates?

Perhaps a good start would be for the minister of tourism to leave the luxury of the VIP lounge he has become recently entitled to and visit the places tourists see. We are no longer the young beautiful girl everyone wants to marry. There are now so many beautiful girls out there who, besides having good looks, also have the vision, humility and strength to go up the mountain and look down at their valley as well as ours. Time we woke up and put an end to this culture of approximation and spin. It is devastating in the long run.