Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority has signed an extensive deal with Emirates, the national airline of Dubai, to globally promote Mauritius holidays and bring passengers to the island on one of the presently 11 flights the airline operates from Dubai. The two partners will engage in a range of marketing and promotional activities aimed to stimulate demand and increase the ‘visibility’ of Mauritius across the global network that Emirates has built in recent years.
Present at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding at the airline’s head office in Dubai were the Mauritius Tourism Minister Mr. Sik Yuen, his Permanent Secretary Premila Roy, the Chairman of MTPA Robert Desvaux and the CEO of MTPA Karl Mootoosamy, while Emirates was represented by Majid Mualla, Emirates’s Senior Vice President Commercial Operations West Asia and Indian Ocean and Omar Ramtoola, General Manager Emirates General Manager (Indian Ocean Islands).
It is understood from usually well informed sources that Emirates is seeking more flights and possibly even 5th freedom rights, counting on the support of hotel and resort operators in Mauritius, who have for long asked their own government to grant greater access to foreign airlines to bring more tourists to the country. These developments are very similar to what the airline was trying to achieve in neighboring Seychelles, where the opening of the skies has led to Air Seychelles axing all their European and Asian destinations as a result of not being able to compete with the Gulf based giants on fares and frequencies.
