Tourism: A Dead Period in Perspective

Currently, hotels are filled to only 40 or 50%, when they should be at 85 or 90%. Therefore, it is a difficult period for posting a drop of 15% is expected, while a -6% drop was observed during the high season. In addition, although many hotels have a policy of sellout, tourists are reluctant to choose our destination for a holiday and they come, they prefer to rent bungalows.

According Bissoon Mungroo, president of the Association of boutique hotels, the situation with regard to tourists has changed. "In previous years, we had reservations that were made well in advance. Now, this is not the case. Tourists prefer last minute bookings, "he said.

Explore other tourism markets

Bissoon Mungroo, president of the Association of boutique hotels, believes that other destinations do not meet the same problem as Maurice. "Three months earlier, when hotels were doing their marketing, it was felt that the season would be very critical," he said, but he said nothing has been done. "We should have started at this time, to seek new markets," he said. For him, the competing destinations outperformed Maurice and he admitted being uncertain about the future of tourism in our country.

Thus, he hoped that the Mauritian operators continue to explore other tourist markets and rely more on a better quality of service. It would also attract more tourists 'upscale' from China, India and emerging markets to Mauritius.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, this type of tourism is considered as 'high spenders' since they are very fond of shopping centers such as the Caudan Waterfront, duty free shops, luxury hotels, jewelry shops, restaurants of haute cuisine, the wedding ceremonies class, the big casinos, beautiful cars and haute couture, among others.