Tourism in Mauritius

Tourism in Mauritius – A detailed report and a proposition of strategies to enhance the economical growth

Mohan V. Jadhav ISITECH BUSINESS SCHOOL
Cyber city, Ebene, Mauritius e-mail: jadhav@isitechbs.com

Abstract: In this paper, the author has indicated by research and study about tourism in Mauritius tried to throw some light on the tourism industry presently active in Mauritius. Mauritius is known as a dream destination for many people who look forward to enjoy their holidays in a beautiful environment. Mauritius is the first choice. Tourism industry growing rapidly and vast potential for generating employment and earning large amount of foreign exchange. Percentage of tourist coming to Mauritius is rising. We have to keep tourism as a back hand support for earning foreign exchange.

Keywords: Tourism, Promotion, Tropical Island, Destination, Hospitality Industry, Seasonal, Cross Culture.

1. Introduction:

Mauritius is tropical island destination situated on the shores of the Indian Ocean. It is performing relatively well as a tourism destination. Mauritius, an island covering 1,860 square kilometers, is situated some 2.000 kilometers off the south East coast of Africa. More than 150 kilometers of white sandy beaches and transparent lagoon are protected from the open sea by the world’s third largest coral reef, which surrounds the island. The population is estimated 1.2 million. [1] It forms a mosaic of different races, cultures & religions since Mauritians are descendants of immigrants from the Indian sub-continent, Africa, Europe & China. The cultural diversity & racial harmony of the island make of Mauritius a unique place. Most Mauritians are multilingual being fluent in Creole, French & English. English is the official language. Bhojpuri, Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Marathi, Telgu & Mandarin are also spoken. Mauritius capital and largest city is Port Louis in the North West and other important towns are Curepipe, Vacoas, Phoenix, Quarte Bornes, Rose-Hill and Beau-Bassin. Mauritius is a democracy modeled on the British system of parliamentary democracy, which guarantees the separation of legislative, executive and judical powers. [5] The president is the Head of State and Commander-in-chief while the Prime Minister has full executive powers and is the Head of Government. Sixty-two members of the National assembly are elected every five years by universal adult suffrage. Democracy is well entrenched in Mauritius and all major political parties are represented in parliament. [7] Mauritius climate is tropical in nature. The summer months start from November & ends in May. The temperature 25 to 33 Degree Celsius in the coastal belts and revolves around 20 to 28 Degree Celsius in the plateau regions. The winter starts from May and concludes in October. Winters are generally hot and humid with temperature ranging from 24 Degree Celsius in winter and 27 Degree Celsius in the plateaus. July is the coolest and February is the warmest month. Profuse rain fall occurs from the month of January to March.[8] Refer fig [1]

Fig 1 Climatic condition

Mauritius is susceptible to tropical cyclones. Sugarcane is presently cultivated on 72000 hectares, representing 85% of the arable land in Mauritius on average 600000 tonnes sugar produced annually with most of sugar being exported to the European Union. Tourism is a big foreign exchange earner for Mauritius, which has marketed it self as an “exclusive” destination. About 5% of GDP is derived from the tourism sector and revenues currently amount to US$ 100 million per annum.[7] According to the last statically tourist bulletin 464,604 tourists visited in period January to June 2011. Over all tourist coming to the Mauritius 372997 Europe, 143102 Africa, 48644 Asia, 6957 Oceania, 8765 America.[1] Refer fig [2]

Fig 2 Tourist visiting to Mauritius

Tourist arrival can be divided mainly into excursion like transit visa & tourist visa. To promote tourist government has developed better infrastructure, ensure better tourism safety measure & developed eco tourism strategies. Most of the people coming to Mauritius are employees, retirees, students & housewives. They are influenced to come to Mauritius by friends, tour operator, previous visit and usually spend more money on accommodation, meals and beverages, shopping, transport & entertainment. The government is aiming at increasing the number of tourist arrival to 2 million by 2015 via various promotional campaigns which would cause great leaps in the economy of the island if successful. The major festival celebrates in Mauritius Christmas, Idul fitr, Diwali, Cavadee, Mahashivratri. The people from various religions like to visit on festival to the Temple.
As Mauritius is a small island here people is fan of foot ball. For tourist Mauritius provides an excellent setting for land sports. Trekking is more exciting in beautiful forests surrounded by nature and the call of birds. The experience of golf in Mauritius is good, Mauritius water sports activity is unforgettable. These sports are available on the island ranging from free swimming, diving, snorkeling, scuba diving to under water walks, kayaking, catamaran sailing, parasailing, kite surfing, water ski, Dolphin & Whale watching activity. Mauritius is famous for coral reefs in the Eastern part of Madagascar. The coral reef is a beauty of Mauritius.[2] [3]

2. Arguments

Here I have sorted argument in a positive and negative manner.

2.1 Positive point:
Foreign exchange revenue; - In now a days every economy needs foreign currency to meet its obligations and secure exposition in the world. Such foreign exchange helps the country to meet its important bills, infrastructure development etc. As we know Mauritius has an economy inclined towards important of many items ( capital goods, consumer goods )there fore such as exchange earned through tourism help in supporting the import bills further the foreign exchange also provide the government to support infrastructure development of the country. thus the money earned through tourism serves multifold purpose.

Job opportunities; - Tourism sector consist of wide range of activities like organization, implementation, hospitality, sports, cultural events etc. such different activities helps in creating many job opportunities for people at each stage of activity therefore tourism is one the most job generation business accordingly which indirectly helps in keeping the employment level up.

Country promotion; - As we all know marketing is an essence for promoting any business or product. There fore tourism act as one of the patent tool for purpose. Foreigner visiting Mauritius can act as “Word of Mouth” advertisers of hospitality and warm welcome offered by Mauritius.
Such word of mouth publicity can assets Mauritius is becoming and lime light destination in a long term.

2.2 Negative point
Cross culture; - where ever foreign nationals come to a different country they always bring with themselves etiquettes, mannerism and behavioral aspect. These human emotions are often cherry picked by local people and implemented in their daily life’s. Thus the transition from local cultural to adopt cultural creates social problems in the country.

Increasing crime; - The attraction of money always attracts every buddy attention. Such attraction leads to cultivation of crime. The money shown by the tourist often leads to tempted crime by the local people. There fore it becomes a prime importance for any nation to protect such foreign tourist from local crime while addressing the socio economic problem faced by the local population.

Seasonal business; -As we all know every country have a cyclical weather pattern. There fore the tourism is often attracted during the best weather period. Such best face period makes tourism a very uncertain and temporary job sector.

3. Conclusions

As we have seen above that tourism sector has with itself advantages and disadvantages. There fore considering the size of disadvantages it is advisable to keep tourism as a back hand support for earning foreign exchange. Since tourism in any country is majorly dependent on the climatic condition for attracting any foreigner, excessive dependence may lead to uncertain revenue figures in a long run.

4. Future recommendation

 Make Tourism a sports oriented activity rather than restricting it to climate activity.
 Development of infrastructure like bus connectivity, organize travel sector etc. should be give prime importance.
 Local participation of residence should be prompted so as to make visitors more comfortable in a lively environment.
 Shopping mall and eating outlets should be well connected and open to extended hours.
 Give a guarantee the quality of service and level of safety.
 Give full information of every thing that Mauritius offers the tourist.

5. Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Professor Shaun J.Rodrigues, for guiding and supporting me to complete this research paper work and I also like thanks Saurav Sood B.Com, CA, LLB (INDIA) who give me valuable suggestions to complete my research work.

References:

[1] http://www.mauritiusuncovered.co.uk/

[2] http://www.mauritiusholidaystravel.com/mauritius-tours/water-sports-in- mauritius.php

[3] http://www.travelmauritius.info/mauritius_sport.html

[4] http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Africa/Mauritius.html

[5] http://www.maurinet.com/entertainment/

[6] http://www.maurinet.com/business_information/sugar_industry

[7] http://www.gov.mu/portal/site/tourist

[8] http://www.maurinet.com/about_mauritius/geography_climate

References: [1] http://www.mauritiusuncovered.co.uk/ [2] http://www.mauritiusholidaystravel.com/mauritius-tours/water-sports-in- mauritius.php [3] http://www.travelmauritius.info/mauritius_sport.html [4] http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Africa/Mauritius.html [5] http://www.maurinet.com/entertainment/ [6] http://www.maurinet.com/business_information/sugar_industry [7] http://www.gov.mu/portal/site/tourist [8] http://www.maurinet.com/about_mauritius/geography_climate