Mauritius Invites You to Leisure, Cultural Exchange, and Commerce

Our guest blogger of the week is holiday rental agency owner, Dietmar Reigber. He takes us on the rich journey that is Mauritius, and its relationship to Africa:

Mauritius is a tropical island located off of its mainland continent Africa, surrounded only by a few other islands in the Indian Ocean. Many of us in Mauritius do not know much about huge Africa. Mauritius is quite closely connected to South Africa, Madagascar and a little bit with Zimbabwe and other countries on the continent where it has started to invest. Most of what we hear of Africa is most often ministers encouraging Mauritian businessmen to invest in Africa. Mauritius’ limited space and its booming conglomerates definitely need more space to grow. You will certainly see more companies spreading its wings on the continent. For example CIEL group in Tanzania, or Rogers in Mozambique, and Floreal Knitwear in Madagascar. 

View of Mauritus’ capital city, Port Louis

There are certainly more countries where Mauritius is active through banks and fund investing, but this does not necessarily lead to a big cultural exchange. I’d like to share a little story which I expect will shape the way Mauritius and Africa grows closer:

The story is about a Nigerian man named Joseph. But before I dive into his tale, I need to give you a back-story.  Mauritius is aiming at becoming an educational hub, attracting students from the region to come and study here. Medine, which was once mainly a sugar mill located on the west coast of Mauritius will be setting up the Medine Education Village, which also shows how much companies that once depended on sugar have diversified from their main core operations. They have one great asset, and this is the land that they own. Very remarkable is also their well known Casela park, which they keep innovating with new activities from safaris to zip lining.

So in the midst of all this I met Joseph, who had started his studies in accounting. After discovering more about the hospitality industry he decided to switch and study this line of field instead. When I asked Joseph why, he told me that hotels are performing really well in his homeland. The sector is growing and there is a need for qualified personnel in various key positions. What we don’t have in Mauritius is a large population as a local customer base, this is the case in Nigeria. We in Mauritius depend a lot on arrivals from foreign countries.

Joseph will stay in Mauritius for several years. He will learn a lot about Mauritius, we will learn a lot from him. We, that is a group of friends, want to go visit Joseph someday when he is back home. Can you see the impact and cultural exchange that has occurred only through one person? Now fast forward into the future; just imagine what it will be like when thousands of students from Africa will study in Mauritius. I believe that through students the cultural exchange will go deeper as they are staying longer. It takes a while to get to know a country. Likewise in Mauritius we truly hope that someday every Mauritian scholar will have the possibility to do a student exchange and gain experiences abroad. Mauritians are shaped positively by getting to know various cultures and work challenges abroad. When they come back home, they also bring back knowledge and experiences which is in the overall good of the nation.

Holidays in Mauritius only accessible to the elite few?

I run the holiday rentals agency Isla-Mauricia which is specialised for beach villas and luxury beach front apartments. In addition to my portfolio I also have some resorts and cheaper options. As a small agency and tour operator I also depend on what the media is showing abroad and by whom it is sponsored such as the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA). For example if the MTPA launches a billboard advertising campaign in Germany for a period of time, this will stimulate and set the impulse for people to get aware and search online to enquire and discover more of Mauritius. This is how I will then come into action and get enquiries.

Mauritius has positioned itself as a luxury destination. While you do not need to win the lottery to be able to spend a holiday in Mauritius, flight tickets to the island are not cheap. The closest island to Mauritius is Reunion island and the price per kilometre in between those islands is one of the highest in the world. Accommodation wise, you do have a lot of options. From cheap apartments to luxury hotels, there is something for every budget.

Many holiday rentals in Mauritius such as beach villas and luxury beach front apartments come with various services included. A lot of these services can be tailored to how you would like to have your holidays on the island including a concierge service to assist you in organising activities.

Enjoy relaxing, lazy days

Enjoy 5* Heritage Villa. Children stay free of charge for children under 18 and a stay of 7 nights costs less than 1000 EUR per adult.

The perfect dream vacation

The perfect way to relieve stress and relax

A home away from home

Shopping in Mauritius is most certainly not the only thing that matters

There are many other characteristics of this island that deserve to be looked at apart from shopping. Mauritius has hospitals around the island where treatments are for free. You do not even require a health insurance. You can take a health insurance plans to pay for private clinics and in & out patient treatments but this is not compulsory. The elderly travel for free in the bus. There are many more of such facets that make Mauritius stand out.

It is only recently that Mauritius has seen the arrival of shopping malls. Various malls have been built around the island where you can go shopping. If you are looking for brands and pricey goods, you’ll find plenty to look at. Before those malls came, Mauritius had bazaars and places scattered around many towns where you can negotiate a good deal and find all sorts of goods, which also creates the charm of having some diversity than just a mere building block with shops inside.

Mauritians used to travel to Singapore and Hong Kong to practice shopping, but with recent developments, Mauritius has started to export second hand cars to Africa. One can notice a shift change of standard of living. Do you think that people from Africa will travel to Mauritius someday for the purpose of shopping? Sometimes I wonder what might not appear attractive to the markets of Europe might however be interesting for our guests from the continent.

Commerce will most certainly keep on growing between Mauritius and Africa. A lot of analysis and calculations goes into an advertising campaign in Africa so I don’t expect that you will see Mauritius advertised massively on billboards any time soon. However this should not be a barrier for the island to get closer to you, in your living room, on your PC or mobile or whatever smart device you are using to read this article.

Looking forward to your comments on how you envision that Mauritius and Africa can get closer in getting to know each other better.

Guest post by Dietmar Reigber and photos from Isla Mauricia  
Dietmar Reigber runs the holiday rentals agency Isla-Mauricia based in Mauritius. He has extensive knowledge of the islands regions and the private accommodation industry. You can contact him to assist you in planning your holiday in a private beach villa or luxury beach front apartment in the islands most sought out locations.