The island’s tourism industry is
climbing out of the doldrums, with arrivals for last month up 6.5% on
the same period in 2008. Visitor arrivals for December reached a record
109,730, beating all forecasts.
And on an annual basis, the sector contracted by an estimated 6.5% last
year, much lower that the initial forecast of a 10% slump. “This
overall drop remains reasonable given the international context. The
forecast for the first quarter of 2010 looks extremely good,” said
Minister of Tourism Xavier Duval.
Last year, hotels had to embark on an aggressive marketing campaign and
drastically reduce their prices to beat the downturn as arrivals from
traditional European markets were badly hit by the global economic
crisis.
But the slide in tourist arrivals came to a halt last November when
there was surprise 4% jump. Tourism receipts for the year ending
December are thought to have reached Rs36.5 billion compared to Rs41.2
billion in 2008.
With the expected economic recovery of our main tourism markets, the
number of arrivals should reach 900,000 this year. The island can also
expect another boost in numbers thanks to the World Cup in South Africa
in June/July.
By Mahesh Bugnath
http://www.newsnow.mu/NewsView.asp?NID=2448