On 17th March, the Charles Telfair Centre hosted a national workshop on “Advancing a Sustainable Tourism Economy in the WIO: The Mauritius Case.”
This closed-door workshop brought together 20 senior stakeholders from the public and private sectors to:
- look into the barriers currently hindering progress towards a sustainable tourism, and
explore solutions for Mauritius to ensure the long-term sustainability of its tourism sector.
The roundtable benefited from the expert intervention of Dr Jay Doorga, Head of the Earth and Ocean Lab at Université des Mascareignes on the state of the Mauritian coast.
Key highlights from participants include:
- Mauritius needs to establish a strategy and vision with accountability and an entity stewarding the implementation.
- We should move beyond seeing our coastal regions as mere tourist attractions, reflect on own relationship with them and nurture our identity and cultural heritage.
- Collaborations between the private and public sectors, civil society, and coastal populations is currently lacking.
- We should address the financing gap that limits small tourism operators’ ability to adopt sustainable strategies.
