Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) has witnessed a 15 per cent growth in Indian visitor arrivals from January to July 2017. Earlier till June the destination has witnessed eight per cent increase. In an effort to increase the numbers from India, MTPA organised a four city roadshow in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.

Replying to a question over not getting a rapid growth from India, Vijaycoomarsingh Bhujohory, Chairperson, MTPA said, “The growth is not rapid due to capacity constrain. We need to have our daily operations atleast from one port in India. We have 4 weekly flights from Mumbai and we are going to have 5th flight from Mumbai by December. Air Mauritius is redoing its fleet and we will have increased frequency. India is our preferred market. We have seen sustained growth from here and the growth is in both directions. We are expecting a major growth in tourism exchange between two countries. Near 60 per cent of our population i.e. 800,000 will be given OCI. They will not need any visa and pre hotel bookings and they can come any time. A lot of Indian people are living and working in Mauritius now. So, we see a good growth in coming day,” he said.

Speaking about the growth Kevin Ramkaloan, Director, MTPA said, “The growth from January to June was around eight per cent and from Jan to July it was 15 per cent. There have been a lot of ups and downs this year, with the implementation of demonetisation there was a downfall in arrivals. Later, we witnessed the footfalls picking up but with GST I think there is a small impact. MTPA and Air Mauritius is working to promote the destination and keep it affordable to the Indian tourists.”

India is amongst the top 10 source markets for Mauritius. This year the destination is all set to celebrate its 50th year of Independence for which an array of events is line up.

Ramkaloan said, “We come at the highest level at this roadshow every year. This is our third year with a large delegation. We go to the four tier I cities, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. This reflects the importance of India market for us. India is in our top 10 source markets. With time we have realised the possibilities that Mauritius can offer to Indian travellers. Beyond the beaches we have a lot to offer to the Indian travellers. We have a lot of activities for every segment from families to adrenalin junkies. This year we are celebrating the 50 years of independence. This is a very festive period and travellers can have a once in a lifetime experience. There are many new activities only for this year.”

By 2018, the destination is targeting to attract 100,000 Indian travellers. Connectivity enhancement will play a key role in achieving this target. He further said, “We are looking to attract over 100,000 travellers by 2018 from India. The desire to travel to Mauritius is there. We need more airlift to reach this target. Currently, we have a lot of gulf carriers flying from India to Mauritius and we have Air Mauritius flying to four main cities. In near future, Air Mauritius is buying new planes and refurbishing them, so the quality of air travel from Mumbai to Mauritius will be further enhanced.”

Speaking about the upcoming segments Ramkaloan said, “Golf segment is continuously growing in importance. Today we see a lot of sporting events like the Mauritius Marathon where we get delegations from across the globe. We would like to promote the sports tourism in India market. We are also promoting visitors to come to Mauritius and explore beyond which is the small islands like Reunion Island as people can get visa on arrivals. Culturally we offer a diversity of experiences. To make it easy for travellers we now have listed our national events calendar. We have around 40 events happening round the year and would like Indian travellers to experience those.”

With inputs from Pallavi Mehra