Mauritius tourism partners are hoping to salvage at least part of the peak summer holiday season, with everything in place to fulfil January bookings, should borders be reopened to travellers from South Africa.
Mauritius implemented arrival restrictions and cancelled all inbound flights from South Africa from November 28 until December 31 in response to concern about the spread of the new COVID variant, Omicron. The restrictions also apply to arrivals from Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini.
Mauritius partners have been working tirelessly throughout the week to assist customers booked to travel before the end of the month.
The Holiday Factory Director, Flora Fubbs, said: “We have been insane, repatriating people from Mauritius, Maldives and Seychelles. Our team worked most of the weekend of November 28 to contact all our clients, and now we are following up with what the clients would like to do – amend bookings, cancel or wait and see.”
Fubbs said it was too early to tell how many bookings would be affected by the ban overall, but expected it could amount to thousands. Most of The Holiday Factory’s clients holding bookings for travel in December were looking at rebooking for travel in March, April or June, but there was still hope for January, said Fubbs.
December is generally considered peak season for travel from South Africa to Mauritius, and was on track to be a bumper month for Beachcomber Tours this year. The operator had reported a quick recovery, and volumes were almost at pre-COVID (2019) levels when the island reopened to international visitors in October.
Beachcomber Tours MD, Terry Munro, said this week: “We are still putting our hope in the fact that the world may see they have totally overreacted. May sense prevail.”
Before the discovery of Omicron, the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) said the island’s reopening was going very well. Within two weeks of borders reopening to international travellers, 2 453 arrivals from South Africa were recorded, out of a total 34 961 passenger entries.
Ironically, the MTPA has now called on the French government to review its decision to place Mauritius on a new ‘scarlet’ list, also in response to the Omicron variant. France is one of the island’s main source markets. Although the MTPA acknowledged that the scarlet classification was on a temporary basis, it said: “The Mauritian tourism family remains united in the face of this new challenge. We call on the French government to review this decision as soon as possible to minimise the impact on an industry on which more than 150 000 people depend, and which is only just getting back on its feet.”
Meanwhile, airlines that had rushed to add extra capacity between South Africa and Mauritius to meet the forecast demand, had made no schedule changes for January or beyond by the end of last week (December 3).
Speaking for BA Comair, Corporate Communications Head, Susan Van Der Ryst, said: “At this stage we plan to have the full British Airways (operated by Comair) flight schedule in place for January, subject to any development in the macro-environment that may have an impact on our operations.” Customers were being looked after in line with BA’s book-with-confidence policy, she said.
“We are living in unprecedented times and continuously review the macro-environment and the impact travel bans and lockdowns have on our operations. We look forward to resuming our flights to the beautiful island of Mauritius once we are permitted to re-enter the island.”
FlySafair has offered full voucher refunds for all direct bookings and said it was working with wholesale partners to provide similarly re-bookable terms for those customers. Chief Marketing Officer, Kirby Gordon, said the forced cancellations had been “devastating” for the airline’s new Mauritius route. He hoped restrictions would be lifted in time for the start of the new year.
“As it stands, there is no official word that the exclusion will extend into January, so, for the time being, we will retain that schedule, pending any further word out of Mauritius.”
