The original idea of discriminating against foreigners or so-called non-residents in the tourism establishments was to channel foreign exchange into the banking system, which was, according to the government’s estimation, otherwise going into the black market.
Like all regulations intended to fix the symptom of a problem rather than the cause, the application of these regulations has given rise to the phenomenon of “unintended consequences”. Instead of the tourists or foreigners being discriminated against, it is now the residents who are the victims of the regulations in more ways than one.
The latest establishment to join the bandwagon is the Coral Strand Hotel, recently bought by a Russian national. After a facelift of the public areas, the hotel has reopened with 5-star prices in euro, which has become the currency of choice of most tourism establishments. At the pool bar a standard bottle of Seybrew is now €4 regardless who the customer is. Indeed, every drink, including canned orange juice is the same price.
Now, all hotels are pricing their services in foreign currencies. As a consequence, for the residents, (that is, those of us who are entitled to a government issued ID), we no longer have a right to know how much our meal or your drinks will cost us before we order them. In some establishments, such as the real 5-star Northolme Hilton we must prove to the foreign waiter that we are indeed carrying a government issued ID before we are allowed to pay our bar bill in rupees. Remember the original intention of the law, to discriminate against the non-residents? Now we are being discriminated against in a big way and no one, it seems can do anything about it.
Bear in mind that euros or any foreign currencies have prices of their own in Seychelles. One price is set by the Central Bank each day. No one, of course, can obtain a single euro for that price on demand at the commercial banks or anywhere. On the other hand we can obtain almost any amount of foreign currencies in the so-called “black market”. The difference in price between the official price and the black market price could be as much as double.
Coral Strand and all the other hotels do not, however, charge us the black market price of the euro when our bar bill is converted instantly. They use the “official” exchange rate or something close to it, since the official rate can change on a daily basis. And that’s the problem. Last year the official rate of the euro was just under R7. At that rate a standard bottle of beer at the Coral Strand pool bar would have cost us about R28. Now the “official” rate of exchange has been changed to around R12. At a stroke we must all pay about R50 for the same bottle of beer, the cost of which to the hotels has barely changed in that time.
For all practical purposes, therefore, in the tourism establishments, the price of drinks and food for us so-called residents are set by Francis Chang Leng, the Governor of the Central Bank at his whims and fancy. More evidence of the Seychellois being a second class citizen in his own country.