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EARLY in the year the Mauritius government approved a new measure to better facilitate the needs of the Arab visitor.
The passport and immigration office can now grant visas for accompanying foreign personnel of Arab visitors who are from the Philippines and Sri Lanka. The visas are valid for a period of one month and are issued upon arrival. Sri Lankans and Filipinos must be accompanied by their employer who should be from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar or Bahrain. They should hold a residence permit for a period of at least three months in the country of residence of their respective employers, plus a valid passport or other recognised travel documents which must have an expiry date at least six months beyond the final date of stay.
Other news from the Indian Ocean island is that the South Africa hosted FIFA World Cup 2010 accommodation office has asked for 3,200 hotel rooms in Mauritius to be made available for this event. South Africa is the fourth largest market for Mauritius – in 2008, 84,448 South African tourists visited Mauritius, indicating a 3.3 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.
Emirates airline recently introduced two additional flights (on Thursday and Saturday) per week from Dubai to Mauritius, bringing the total number of flights per week to nine.
Since the start of its operations to Mauritius in 2002, Emirates has promoted the island across its global network, and has teamed up with the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority to introduce the island’s tourist attractions to the travel trade and media in key Middle East markets.
Emirates Holidays’ annual brochure features specialised cruise, honeymoon, adventure and general family vacations in Mauritius. Majid Al Mualla, Emirates’ vice president commercial operations, West Asia & Indian Ocean said, "The increased frequency is representative of Emirates’ enhanced commitment to Mauritius. Our recent campaigns have stepped up demand for the route as well as opened up new feeder markets such as Russia and East Europe. The increasing number of tourists will welcome these additional flights as they will have more travel options and better connectivity."