The Tourism Ministry in Mauritius has signed a deal with Emirates which will see a joint promotion of the island as a destination for the airline, according to a report in Arab News.

The deal was signed in January 2012 at the airline’s headquarters in Dubai by Tourism Minister Michael Sik Yuen and other Mauritius officials with senior Emirates executives. It follows a recent upgrading of the airlines service on the Dubai-Mauritius route which now has eleven flights a week to the island.

Part of the deal will be a number of joint promotions aimed at increasing market awareness of Mauritius on the tourism market in the more than a hundred airlines on Emirates’ global network of destinations.

The airline’s senior vice president, Majid Al-Mualla, spoke to Arab News after the deal was signed, describing the island of Mauritius as “a great product” and saying it constitutes an important destination for the Emirates network.

Al-Mualla said the airline has a strong belief in the potential of Mauritius and underlined that Emirates’ regular increase in the number of flights it offered on the route demonstrated that the strategy of promoting the island was working. He also thanked the government of Mauritius for the trust and support shown in developing the deal.

The joint promotion is good news for tourists planning holidays to Mauritius . Part of Emirates’ strategy is to promote the island as a twin destination with Dubai, in which the airline’s home city is being offered as a stopover for travellers from Europe.

The majority of arrivals in Mauritius are from Europe, with more than sixty per cent of the traffic coming from France, although Emirates would like to see an increase in tourists from the Middle Eastern and Scandinavian markets. The Mauritian government recently released figures showing that 2011 had seen growth in all markets except Russia.

Al-Mualla emphasised the importance of Mauritius to Emirates, telling Arab News that promoting the island had always been an integral part of the airline’s strategy and that the new deal was a renewal of that commitment.

Tourism Minister Michael Sik Yuan also hailed the deal as an opportunity to launch new growth and marketing strategies through which Mauritius would target the Middle East region and its peripheral markets as well as Northern Europe.

Speaking after the deal with Emirates was signed he told media that the new promotions would raise awareness of such features as golf, medical tourism and inland tourism, as well as the shopping facilities on the island.

With the peak travel season in the Indian Ocean region in full swing, it’s a good time to take advantage of the reduced prices from March by booking ahead for holiday packages in the late European spring. The end of the peak season also means a greater range of accommodation options on the island.

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