Mauritius recorded a 7.2 per cent rise in the num ber of tourists who visited the country in the first quarter of 2008 when compar e d to the corresponding period last year.

According to the Mauritian Central Statistics Office (CSO), 243,931 tourists visited the country in the quarter of last year. The figure rose to 261,494 from Ja n uary to March this year.

In its latest economic bulletin issued Wednesday, the CSO indicated that about 89 per cent of the tourists came for holidays while 4.9 per cent were in transit a nd another 3 per cent were on business or conference trips.

It further indicated that arrivals from Europe, which accounted for 68.7 per cent of total tourist arrivals, increased by 4.7 per cent to reach 179,654 during t h e first quarter of 2008 against 171,556 in the corresponding quarter of 2007.

Arrivals from France, which is the island's leading market, represented 29.4 per cent of the total tourist arrivals and 42.8 per cent of the European market, rose by 12.4 pe r cent to reach 76,889.

The following performance was recorded as regards the other major generating European countries: United Kingdom (+11.9 per cent), Germany (-6.6%), Italy (-7.5%) , Belgium (+42.9%), CIS (+30.4%), Spain (+20.2%), Switzerland (-0.4%), Netherlands (-9.6%) , Sweden (-18.0%) and Austria (-26.5%).

The CSO said arrivals from African countries, with a share of 21.5 per cent of the total tourist arrivals, increased by 6.3 per cent to 56,287.

Arrivals from Reunion Island, the major market of the region, rose by 1.7 per cent while those from Africa were up by 14.5 per cent.

For the other African countries, the figures were as follows: Madagascar (+35.6% ), Comoros (+25.4%), Zimbabwe (+11.9%), Kenya (-1.2%) and Seychelles (-23.3%).

Meanwhile, arrivals from Asia, which represented 6.4 per cent of total tourist arrivals, were up by 24.9 per cent to attain 16,675. Arrivals from India, the island's maj or source on this continent, grew by 25 per cent to reach 10,271.

The performance of other countries was as follows: China (+60.4%), United Arab Emirates (+41.8%), Singapore (+8.6%), Hong Kong (+6.2%), Japan (-4.4%) and Malaysia (-9%).

The arrivals from Oceania grew by 24.2 per cent to 4,294 with increases of 23.6 per cent from Australia and from America, they went up by 77.6 per cent to reach 4,412.

The CSO estimated that a total of 2.6 million tourist nights were spent in the island during the first three months of 2008, representing an increase of 4.9 per cent over the same period in 2007.

At the end of March 2008, there were a total of 96 registered hotels in Mauritius. The total room capacity was 10,796 with 21,649 bed places and the room occupancy rate for all hotels, for the first quarter of 2008, averaged 79 per cent whil e the bed occupancy rate was 71 per cent.

For its part, the Bank of Mauritius indicated that gross tourism receipts for the first quarter of 2008 amounted to US$ 462 million, an increase of 10.7 per cen t compared to the US$ 411.5 million for the same period in 2007.

Mauritius tourism industry employs about 27,000 people.
 
Port-Louis - 21/05/2008

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