South African travellers are flocking back to Mauritius, with arrivals recovering to pre-pandemic levels.
Mauritius has long been a popular holiday destination for South Africans. South Africa has traditionally been among the top five tourism source markets for Mauritius, Business Insider South Africa reported.
But this travel ground to a halt amid the Covid-19 pandemic. South African travellers were initially excluded from the first phase of Mauritius’ reopening to international holidaymakers in July 2021.
Flights only resumed in October, but this reopening was short-lived as Mauritius closed its borders to South Africa in reaction to the discovery of the Omicron coronavirus variant in late November.
This ban, along with many other international restrictions facing South African travellers, was lifted in January.
Between January and May of this year, Mauritius welcomed 33,601 passengers from South Africa, recovering to more than 80% of pre-pandemic levels.
South African arrivals in April and May of this year, totalling 18,303, exceed pre-pandemic levels of travel by almost 2%. This bodes well for the island’s recovery, and arrivals are expected to grow even more, according to the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA).
“It is encouraging to see the arrivals numbers from South Africa to Mauritius for the first five months of 2022 rivalling those of pre-Covid 2019, and we expect this positive and upward trend to continue through the year and into 2023,” said Arvind Bundhun, director of the MTPA, told Business Insider.
The report on South African arrivals comes amid Mauritius’ further relaxation of COVID-19 regulations, which came into effect on 1 July.
The requirement for wearing face masks has been relaxed, except in public areas such as hospitals, airports, and on public transport.
Additionally, tests for vaccinated and unvaccinated passengers upon arrival have been waived.
Original article at Business Insider
