The Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) recently conducted a five-city roadshow in India.

In late August, the tourism board and representatives from 30 Mauritian travel suppliers travelled to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai to meet with the local travel trade.

These “Discover Mauritius” events were aimed at promoting Mauritius as a leisure, MICE, golf and wedding destination. Almost 1,000 Indian agents attended the five events.

“We are following the government’s policy to move from a hotel-based to an attraction-based destination,” explained Kevin Ramkaloan, director of the MTPA. “The Indian tourists are now looking for more and more sophisticated experiential holidays and are going for a lot of activities.

“The Indian market, which had a slow growth earlier, grew by a fantastic 18% last year and we hope to continue the same trend this year. The target is to get 100,000 tourists from India in 2017.”

Indian arrivals to Mauritius have been boosted by a recent visa waiver scheme and direct flights from Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru. Air Mauritius is also adding extra capacity to and from India.

Suppliers showcasing their products to the Indian market at the roadshow events included hotels, DMCs and activity companies.