Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) is expecting to welcome about 60,000 Indian visitors in 2014 compared to 58,000 Indian visitors in 2013. “We are expecting 5 per cent to 6 per cent growth in Indian arrivals to Mauritius this year,” Vivek Anand, Country Manager – India, said on the sidelines of a recently concluded roadshow in New Delhi. Mauritius is expecting more than one million tourist this year.
The MTPA India office has become quite aggressive in promoting Mauritius on a pan – India basis. “We have gone to 20 cities in India and conducted seminars over there. We have also conducted a four-city roadshow in August in Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata and we received a good response from the travel trade,” he added. MTPA was joined by Air Mauritius, hotels, products and DMC’s who interacted with the travel trade of the respective cities.
MTPA is mainly focused on drawing MICE and wedding segment travellers from India apart from regular tourists. “Mauritius offers a world-class infrastructure and convention centres. We have two huge convention centres at Pailles and Grand Bay. We also offer various incentives to MICE operators such as cash return depending on the group size, fast track immigration, extra luggage on Air Mauritius, helicopters sightseeing visits. A group of minimum 100 people staying for minimum two nights will be eligible to avail the incentives,” Anand added that Mauritius received 10-12 large groups this year.
To tap the potential of the Indian wedding segment, MTPA India Office recently conducted a fam tour for Indian wedding planners. “For weddings that are being conducted in Mauritius, we give special facilities, such as duty free import of jewellery and other things required for a wedding. We also provide duty free liquors at one point to one person. MTPA is holding roadshows, Mauritius themed wedding couture shows and participating in various travel trade shows in India. We are also emphasising on Tier-I and Tier-II cities of India like Ahmedabad, Pune and Jaipur,” Anand added.
MTPA is also focusing on golf segment in India. “Mauritius is one of the 10 best gold destinations in the world. We are promoting this segment too in the India market,” he added. MTPA is also promoting itself as an adventure destination in India.
According to him, there is a need of more air connectivity between India and Mauritius. “Although Air Mauritius connects to New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, we need to have more connectivity to push Indian numbers,” he opined.
