MAURITIUS TALKS TO AIRLINES AT ITB
A regular source from Mauritius has send impressions from the just concluded ITB, the worlds largest global tourism trade show, to share some news about what the islands large delegation has accomplished.
Our official met with airlines flying regularly from Germany to Mauritius and to explore how in the current environment they can increase seats during peak demand times. We were told they also talked to other airlines like Air Berlin [now in the Etihad stable after Abu Dhabi?s
national airline acquired a strategic 30 percent stake in the second
largest German airline]. I personally thought that was interesting because Air Berlins partner Etihad has bought 40 percent of Air Seychelles, effectively rescuing that airline and our own, Air Mauritius, has been making losses and is undergoing a cost cutting programme. Generally though some of us felt while in Berlin that Mauritius should have joined with La Reunion and Seychelles for the Carnival festival because those two countries got a lot more attention from the media and the public. Maybe it is true we had the chance to join the hosting of that festival and dont know why Mauritius was absent from such a big media event. We have watched what happened in Seychelles over the past few years and how they got into the spotlight and our own tourism promotion authority must now also be restructured if we want to make up for lost time and lost ground. Civil servants have no longer a place in running our sector, it is time the private sector asserts itself and then steps up and offers a new vision for Mauritius tourism. And our government has to make a hard choice on our airline too, perhaps best to bring in a partner before things go worse.
Harsh words, perhaps harsher thoughts even? What if any lessons will be learned on Mauritius, time will tell so watch this space for breaking news, as and when things get moving there.
