Mauritius remains an attractive travel destination. Its Tourism Industry maintained a robust growth in 2018 as the island welcomed a total of 1,399,287 tourists to its sandy beaches, representing an increase of 4.3% compared to 2017.

The strong performance was mainly driven by the European market, particularly Germany which recorded 132,815 arrivals (+13,959 tourists or +11.74%) and France with 285,271 arrivals (+11,852 or +4.33%). There was also a positive increase in the number of arrivals from the United Kingdom, South Africa and India. From an emerging markets perspective, Saudi Arabia marked a surge with 16,507 arrivals compared to 5,142 in 2017 (+221%). However, regression is noted regarding the Reunion Island market with 138,439 tourists (-5.2%) and China with 65,739 tourists (-9.9 %).

Arrivals by air registered a growth of 3.6%, while arrivals by sea witnessed a surge of 33.4%. As at October 2018, tourism receipts had reached MUR 5.4 billion (approximately USD 154.3 million).