Mauritius Travel Guide

FEEL THE LIFE, PULSE & ENERGY OF MAURITIUS!

People across the world have made Mauritius their holiday destination of choice since the 1950s, but we’re now expanding the possibilities of what that means. In the age of sustainability, we’re looking to offer more than just the white sand beaches and turquoise lagoons that our island is famed for. In particular, we are focusing on integrating sustainability throughout our sector in order to open up new national parks for exploration and adventure.

For many years now, people have known Mauritius for its resort hotels that overlook the lagoons and coral reef surrounding the island. They have helped drive a constant growth in visitors. By 2019, we had 110 hotels and approximately 1000 Tourist Residences and Guest Houses that accommodated 1.4 million tourists throughout the year. However, such a large number of visitors has put pressure onto the coastline’s natural ecology. That’s why we want to try and bring tourists inland.

What we at the Mauritius Tourism Authority want to do is work with our main tour operators to make them aware of these opportunities. We want them to make nature base tourism part of their mainstream offers. That’s essential because in 2019, when we received 1.4 million visitors, 60% of them still arrived in the country via traditional operators. That doesn’t even include online travel agencies (OTAs). Therefore, encouraging tour operators to promote inland packages is a core part of our sustainability commitment.

It’s not just national parks, either. We want visitors to explore our local communities and experience the deep culture and heritage that Mauritius can offer. To do this, we are running programs that will train taxi drivers, tour guides to empower them on the best practices. That means the drivers can offer half- or full-day packages bringing tourists into the villages that are dotted across the island. There they can eat with the inhabitants, spend time with them, and buy from local artisans.

Whether it is major tour operators or independent taxi drivers, the Mauritius Tourism Authority is working with as many individuals and organisations as possible in order to create a green and sustainable tourism sector. Since June of 2023, the Mauritius Tourism Authority has set up the Sustainable Tourism Unit (STU), building upon the foundations of Sustainable Island Mauritius (SIM), which was co-funded by the European Union and which ended in December 2022. Through STU, we will accompany the approximately 6000 operators to guide them on lowering the carbon footprint of their activities. Since 2018, we have already worked with more than 3500 individuals, but STU will continue until everyone is involved.

We have developed a system to achieve this. The Mauritius Pro-Handprint Innovation Framework (MauPHI) was produced through a four-year collaboration with our partner Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production. The MauPHI Impact Criteria consists of 11 potential impact categories against which any operator or services provider can assess themselves. They include measures for everything from product attractiveness and impact on cultural heritage, to customer awareness and emissions values. By leveraging this toolkit, we can promote sustainability throughout the entire supply chain.

Three thousand, five hundred individuals have been trained on how to use it since 2018. However, from 2024, the Mauritius Tourism Authority, through its parent Ministry of Tourism, will consider making MauPHI a mandatory requirement for all 6000 operators in the country. They will need to provide us with data for their energy consumption, water consumption, waste management, community development, and many other metrics that show their efforts towards sustainable tourism.

We want this because we aim to differentiate Mauritius from other destinations in the region. Our goal is to become the first destination in the southern hemisphere to hold a green destination accreditation, which we plan to achieve by 2030. Ensuring that every operator complies with the MauPHI metrics is our way of accomplishing that.

We have started the process by selecting two pilot areas in which all the operators will need to meet STU’s demands. They are the village of Bel Ombre, on the southern coast, and the island of Rodrigues. In these two regions, we have started the certification process through a recognised Certification body called Green Destinations. Over the next year, we will bring these two regions in line with the accreditation standards. Then, through the lessons learned with those two pilots, we can then convert the whole of Mauritius by 2030.

Alongside the Green Destinations certification, we want every single operator recognised as meeting the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s (GSTC) standards. At present, of the 110 operational hotels on the island, more than 40 already hold a GSTC certificate. That’s nearly 50%, a good figure compared to many other destinations. But we want to go further and ensure every single of the operators, service providers and product manufacturers along the value chain hold an approved certificate.

Something that we’re already supporting is an initiative known as Made in Moris. This is operated by our partners, the Association of Mauritian Manufacturers, and encourages the resorts to source as much as they can from local manufacturers and producers. It’s an important sustainability initiative not just from an environmental perspective but an economic one as well. The majority of our visitors stay at one of the 110 hotels, and our goal is to ensure that at least 50% of the supply chain for each one of those is local. Making the hotels as sustainable as possible will ground the country’s overall strategy.

Mauritius Tourism Authority has been working with the Mauritius Bankers Association to develop a system for green financing. It is understood that a number of SMEs in the country have expressed that the biggest barrier preventing them from pursuing sustainability is finance. So, we worked with the banking association to produce a pamphlet that highlighted the types of green measures and technologies that SMEs could implement, as well as the financial options available to support them in doing so. Like Made in Maurice, this initiative represents an important step in helping every link along the supply chain.

In 2022, we held the first Sustainable Tourism Mauritius Awards. While we actively advocate for a widespread green transition, we also sought a way to recognise their efforts. Different categories were established, including large accommodation, small accommodation, restaurant, tour operators, nature-based tours, and many more. Individuals or businesses interested in participating could nominate themselves for an award after which our auditors would conduct thorough assessments of their operations. The participants in the first awards found high value in the recognition, prompting us to host a second ceremony this year, with further plans to organise the 3rd edition in 2024.

All of this is essential because in the end Mauritius, as an island country in the Indian Ocean, is vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Rising sea levels pose a threat to the nation’s survival while heating oceans have the potential to destroy the vulnerable coral reef surrounding the country. We recognise that travelling to Mauritius is itself somewhat problematic because it’s almost necessary to arrive here by plane. That’s why we’re doing everything we can to make every other aspect of Mauritian tourism environmentally friendly. Moreover, money generated through the tourism sector will play an important part in securing a future for the nation’s resilience and biodiversity.

Mauritius is a unique environment. Its isolation has led to an incredible biodiversity, with 39% of plants, 80% of non-marine birds, 80% of reptiles and 40% of bat species found on the island considered endemic. For example, there are 23 different reptile species in the

country – 22 of which are found only here. Meanwhile, the 691 indigenous flowers species on the island has led the World Conservation Union to recognising Mauritius as a Centre of Plant Diversity. We’re proud of this and want not only to preserve this precious landscape but also to share it as widely as possible.

As we open up our national parks, we want visitors to be certain that they are visiting in a way that will help rather than hinder our environment. That’s why we’ve implemented SIM and are course-correcting our entire tourism industry. We believe Mauritius will be a unique destination in the southern hemisphere, one where tourism contributes to the livelihood of our people, animals and plants. The coronavirus pandemic dealt a blow to our sector – as it did everywhere – but we’re well on our way to recovering the historic highs of 2019. But this time, Mauritius will do it in the most ecological and economically sustainable way possible.