South African tourism to Mauritius is bouncing back.
The Indian Ocean island republic’s tourism authority has revealed that that some 33 601 South African visitors arrived on its shores between January and May this year, following almost two years of lockdown and border closures.
“The pent-up desire from South Africans to travel to Mauritius is stronger than ever,” said the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority in a statement.
“Compared to the 2019 figure of 41 811 for the same period this is an extremely positive bounce-back.
“The arrival figures for April and May 2022, at 10 965 and 7 338 respectively, are up by a few hundred against the 2019 numbers of 10 089 and 7, 883 for the two months, this is a strong signal that the destination is recovering and the remainder of the year should see further growth.”
The authority further noted that arrivals numbers from South Africa to Mauritius, for the first five months of 2022, rivalled those of pre-Covid 2019.
“We expect this positive and upward trend to continue through the year and into 2023. We continue to work hard to promote this destination to our key markets globally, of which South Africa is a very important one,” said director Arvind Bundhun.
Among the top markets for Mauritius, South Africa is currently sitting in third position behind France and the UK and ahead of Germany and Reunion.
Interest has been peeked by the Secret Mauritius series featuring 20 off-the-beaten-track locations on the island. A gallery of Paul Choy’s stunning images is featured on www.ratherbeinmauritius.co.za.
In addition to the photography, popular TV presenter and actor Jonathan Boynton-Lee visited Mauritius to film six short videos for a YouTube series, Secret Mauritius with Jonathan Boynton-Lee.
The Independent on Saturday