Australia an Important Market for Mauritius

The largest ever delegation of tourism professionals form Mauritius participated in a three-city Mauritius Roadshow 2008 last week.

Led by the Hon. C. G. Xavier Luc Duval, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Tourism, Leisure and External Communications, Republic of Mauritius, the group included Maxis Simonet, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Robert Desvaux, Chairman, Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority, Manoj R. K. Ujoodha, CEO, Air Mauritius and Karl Mootoosamy, Director, Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority.

As well a number of executives from hotels and tour companies came from Mauritius for the Sydney, Melbourne and Perth travel trade roadshows and media conferences.

On his first visit to Australia Mr Duval said during the Sydney roadshow that Mauritius welcomed more than 900,000 tourist arrivals in 2007.

Australia contributed around 20,000 visitors and is now in 9th place of the world’s top 10 markets, he said.

With nine top courses, golf is now a major leisure time activity in Mauritius.

The average stay for Australians is 11 days.  Australia is an important market for Mauritius though many of our country’s tourism resources are not so well known in this country, he added.

He expects that Mauritius will become better known in Australia as a honeymoon and family destination.  The MICE market is also being promoted as Mauritius is able to provide excellent facilities, he said.  

More details are available on www.tourism-mauritius.mu

Sporting options are varied with kite surfing, bush walking and trekking, wind surfing and, of course, golf.  There are now nine golf courses in Mauritius that are popular with leisure tourists and MICE delegates.

Australia is set to receive a boost in air capacity with Air Mauritius adding a third weekly from Perth beginning next month, said Rana Ramdauringh, Vice President – Sales Air Mauritius.

The carrier started Australian operations in 1991 with a Boeing 767.  Sydney flights began in 2004.  There is now one Sydney service a week though passengers can connect through Perth using Virgin Blue, our partner airline, he said.

“Subject to fuel prices and demand”, Air Mauritius would like to increase frequency to the East Coast of Australia, he said.

In addition to supplementing the Perth service, Air Mauritius “is an expansion mood”.  The carrier added Bangalore, India in April and will start flights to Madrid mid this month.

As well, the airline is increasing frequency with a third service to Cape Town from next month and is “considering China”.

The Madrid flight could have significant interest for Australian passengers as they can now easily stopover in Mauritius before commencing their European holiday, he said.

Rana Ramdauringh, Vice President – Sales, Air Mauritius is hopeful of offering even more capacity to Australia.

Mauritius is becoming increasingly popular as a new stopover en route to Europe.  Our European fares have been “very successful” in the Australian market, he said.

The carrier takes delivery of its second A330 in October which will be used on long haul flights.

The three-city Mauritius Roadshow 2008 was seamlessly organised by the Melbourne-based Wren Partnership which was awarded the contract to represent Mauritius late last year.

Greg Wren, Managing Director, said he was very pleased with the industry response to the roadshows and looks forward to working with the travel trade and media throughout Australia in creating greater awareness of this delightful destination.  

by Thomas E. King