Mauritius Turns To Digital Nomads To Reach Its 1M Tourist Goal In 2022

The island resort isn’t complaining as post-Covid holidaymakers spend more and stay longer in Mauritius. But there is also the aim, a self-imposed ambition of attracting one million tourists this year.

With several of its global markets restricted, Europe accounted for over 80% of Mauritius’ incoming tourism. The average duration of stay for these visitors has now increased from 10 to 14 days. According to Arvind Bundhun, head of the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority, foreign tourist spending has climbed by 25%.

Mauritius, a small Indian Ocean Island nation of about 1.3 million people, has attracted nearly 300,000 tourists since its reopening (October 2021 to mid-March 2022). Tourism arrivals are expected to total 93,000 in the first two months of 2022.

Nonetheless, the resort is holding to an outsized and ambitious objective of attracting one million tourists this calendar year, barely 400,000 less than its arrival estimates for 2019. And this is although major outbound markets such as China are all but closed.

With only nine months till the anticipated one million goal, tourism arrivals between March and December this year would have to be slightly higher than 900,000.

“Diversification is essential,” said Bundhun. As a result, the destination, largely catering to luxury tourists, has now launched a premium visa scheme offering long-term visas to tap the every-burgeoning market of digital nomads. “The demand is very high among this segment of digital nomads and retirees. Around 3000 people have applied for the premium visa, 2000 of them have already arrived in Mauritius,” said Bundhun.

The tourist board is also going above and above to get into its core inbound markets, which have recently lifted international travel restrictions.

Bundhun arrived in India on Saturday to kick off the “Where Else But Mauritius” campaign. In India, Mauritius is anxious to sell the destination not just to honeymooners, but also to families, destination wedding planners, film production groups, and the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions crowd.