Mauritius eyes big tourist potential in India

Mauritus is banking on the response by Indians to its wedding packages and meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions

Mauritus is considering increasing the number of flights from India in order to tap the growing tourist traffic from the country.

"One more flight would be added in December 2013 from Mumbai. Mauritius has an approval to operate 14 flights in a week. We are currently having seven flights in a month and would increase the number as footfalls from India are on the rise," Vijaye Haulder, Deputy Director, Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority, told Business Standard.

Air Mauritius currently operates seven flights in a week from India (two from Delhi, four from Mumbai and one each from Chennai and Banglore).

Haulder added that the number of arrivals from Europe were drastically effected in the wake of the global slowdown, but tourist arrivals from India had remained steady in the past two years.

"Mauritius registered a growth of 14.9 per cent from India in 2011 and 2.3 per cent in 2012. In 2012, the growth from other countries was almost nil. Going by the trends, we expect a 10 per cent growth in tourist arrivals by conducting road shows in India in 2013," Haulder said.

Mauritius is banking on the response by Indians to its 'wedding' packages and meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions (MICE).