Swiss to bring in more tourists to Mauritius

As from November 1 this year, Edelweiss Air, a sister company of Swiss International Airlines, will operate a non-stop flight from Zürich to Mauritius with an A330-200.

This weekly flight will last till February 28, 2011.

The new route is in line with the government’s policy of opening up air access to Mauritius while at the same time exploring markets with a high potential for growth.

Between the March 7 and April 25 next year, a direct flight Zürich-Monbassa- Mauritius-Monbassa-Zürich with an A330- 300 will be available.

Tourism receipts plummeted last year following the negative impact of the global economic crisis on the country’s traditional tourism markets. It is expected that revenues will reach more positive ground this year, according to latest figures.

The operators in this key sector of the Mauritian economy will see their figures recover to pre-crisis levels with an estimated 12.5% improvement in tourism receipts for 2010. The total receipts for this sector is forecast at Rs40.1 billion compared to Rs35.7 billion for 2009.

The revenues expected this year are closer to the Rs41.2 billion brought to the local economy by foreign visitors in 2008. During the past year, tourism operators saw their income contract by 13.4% for the first time in the past few years.

The dire economic situation of operators was further accentuated by them having to resort to cutthroat prices to keep their rooms occupied.

Hotels managed to keep room occupancy rates within acceptable levels with their aggressive marketing policies. Room occupancy rate for all hotels averaged 61% in 2009 as compared to 68% in 2008 while the bed occupancy rate fell from 61% in 2008 to 54% last year.

Edelweiss Air is cooperating with all the important Swiss tour operators who are proposing the Mauritian destination such as Kuoni, M-Travel (Hotelplan, Travelhouse/Soleytours), TUI/Flex Travel and Manta.

Negotiations with other Indian Ocean specialists are in train and will be concluded soon, according to the MTPA. The travel industry in the German part of Switzerland is optimistic to increase sales with this weekly flight.

By Mahesh Bugnath

 http://www.newsnow.mu/NewsView.asp?NID=5104