David Anderson : Take the Mauritian tourism sector to the next level

Since I arrived in Mauritius in February 2016, I have been overwhelmed by the beauty of the island, but more so by its people. I learned very quickly that the people are the reason our guests choose Mauritius as their holiday destination.

Through my role leading Sun Resorts, I am striving to make Mauritius an aspirational destination, where people dream to come. We have amazing hotels with great people full of pride and a natural sense of true hospitality. Our hotels are uniquely diverse each of them have their own personality, offering their own experience. After all, Sun’s promise is to create “Timeless Memories”.

We have always been a great supporter of the Ministry of Tourism and with the new Minister of Tourism, we will continue to work hand in hand for the promotion of the destination.

As an island, we are very dependent on air lift and seat capacity.

The growth in the last few years has had a direct impact on our success as hoteliers. Government should continue on its strategy to attract more airlines especially from the emerging markets in order to sustain the growth in airlift for the years to come.

The air corridor between Mauritius and Changi Airport in Singapore promises to be a game-changing move by the government and offers high prospects for the economy. It will link Asia to Africa through Mauritius and will definitely transform the island in an airline hub for flights between the two continents.

Moreover, we should work with government on preserving our image as a safe destination. This has paid dividends in recent years and actions to strengthen the security of the country can only be beneficial in the long term. I also believe in a strong partnership between public and private sectors to develop more attractions in Mauritius, for our guests to enjoy.

I strongly believe that hotels should be able to recruit the best in class staff with skills that can continue help develop our employees to ensure we keep our leading position in hospitality. Sometimes, this does require us to look outside of Mauritius and I believe we should all have the freedom to do so. Our partnerships with Four Seasons and Shangri-La have shown that our Mauritian employees benefit greatly from these leading global luxury brands state-of-the-art training and development. Indeed, on occasions they are even sent from Mauritius to other hotel destinations within these brands, to improve on their work experience to return with new skills, richer in their life experiences.

Regarding future investment, I believe as a destination, government must keep on improving the infrastructure of the country, such as the road networks, utilities, connectivity and key health facilities to continue attracting high end guest.

Additionally, I believe there are some key areas on which the National Budget needs to have some focus, such as investing in a more aggressive destination marketing with an adequate budget, to have business facilitation for permits, to promote investment in the hotel sector, to ensure a competitive rupee, and continue to have more emphasis on training.

The need to preserve the global reputation that Mauritius has acquired as a leading destination for excellence in hospitality and the development of other segments are two key elements. It is essential that the younger generation ensure the continuity of the legacy left by the industry pioneers over the last forty years. The development of new segments is vital to the industry. For example, within Sun Resorts, we have made one of our priorities the development of a sector associated with MICE tourism focusing on Meetings, Incentive travel, Conferences and Events where we believe Mauritius has a great development opportunity. Additionally, our world class golf courses and expertise in golf management will allow us to fulfill our ambition to be the leader golf in this part of the world.

We should all be working very hard together in the tourism sector to take Mauritius to the next level in guest experience and ensure the island keeps its leading position as a global destination, competing to be the best.

The hotel industry is always looking for talents and people with great sense of hospitality. We do have difficulties in recruitment which is why we are investing in and relaunching our Sun Training Institute. Also the bureaucracy in getting projects approved is sometimes a real brake in realising pro-jects. The fact that we operate in a growth market in Mauritius with tourist arrivals pos-ting healthy double-digit increases since 2015 should always remind us that we also operate in an extremely competitive environment locally but also with other destinations. That is why offering world class seamless experiences will ensure that our guests leave Mauritius delighted and Sun Resorts with “timeless memories.”