TOURIST NUMBERS 'LOOKING EXTREMELY GOOD'

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