In March 2026, the Charles Telfair Centre hosted a closed-door discussion on Advancing Sustainable Tourism in the Western Indian Ocean. The roundtable convened 25 professionals from academia, civil society and the public and private sectors. Together, we looked into the barriers currently slowing the tourism industry’s green transition and explored actionable solutions. This policy brief documents key recommendations emerging from the working group.
Introduction
Coastal and marine tourism remains the most significant economic driver for many Western Indian Ocean countries, constituting around 69% (see figure 1.) of the region’s ocean-based economy (Kepher Gona, et al., 2024). This is true also of Mauritius, where the tourism sector is a mainstay of the local economy, accounting for 20% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), and 14% of employment (World Bank, 2026).
But in the face of rising challenges – including coastal erosion, biodiversity loss, saturation of waste management systems, increased competition, an unclear national strategy, rising transport costs, a shortage of skills, and long-standing difficulties of the national airline –, the sector, a backbone of national productivity, is imperilled. Coastal erosion alone is projected to cost up to USD 50 million and a 36% to 58% decline in reef-related tourism by 2050 (World Bank, 2026). And with good reason: 34 kilometres of our coastline (roughly 36.67% of our beaches) have already been eroded, as Dr Doorga pointed out during his presentation on the state of our coasts (Doorga et al., forthcoming.
Coastal erosion – already affecting 58% of Mauritian hotels (Defi Media, 2024) – , and compounding climate risks such as biodiversity loss carry both economic and social implications for the country which is heavily dependent on tourism for employment, foreign exchange earnings, and overall economic resilience.
Yet, Mauritius remains geared toward the ‘sea-sun-beach’ model of all-inclusive hotels, with 90% of the island’s hotels concentrated along the coastline. In addition, the government has adopted a volume-based growth model with the target to grow international tourist arrivals by 10% annually and tourism earnings by 15% (World Bank, 2026), But this strategy is ill-aligned to the country’s vision to become a “leading and sustainable island destination”.
While higher tourist volumes could boost economic growth depending on spending per tourist , they could also precipitate the overconsumption of natural resources, heighten coastal and marine pollution and degrade the environment, resulting in negative social, economic, and ecological impacts that would outweigh its benefits (Kepher Gona, et al., 2024). Rising climate change effects and fraying ecosystems point to the physical limits (Maingi & Gowreesunkar, 2024) of a volume-based growth approach. Echoing this prognosis, the workshop highlighted that unsustainable growth in the sectors threatens to further degrade the very ‘sea-sun-beach’ premise the industry is founded on.
Rethinking the current model is therefore essential. Navigating the tension between the economic centrality of tourism and environmental pressures will require structural shifts in tourism governance.
Initiatives such as the adoption of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) protocol by the Nairobi Convention and the development of the district-level ICZM plan in Black River point to progress in that direction. Active partnerships between the government and hotel conglomerates are also encouraging. But challenges in terms of policy implementation and climate adaptation across the whole tourism value chain are persistent.
For one thing, informal and/or small operators are often excluded from climate adaptation strategies, due to poor access to finance mechanisms. The workshop also identified inadequate cross-sectoral coordination and lack of a long-term vision as major obstacles in pursuing a sustainable tourism strategy.
To remedy this situation, participants highlighted key action areas, including:
- Reviewing the tourism offer in the context of environmental and related socio-economic pressures
- Addressing the policy challenges
Optimising the tourism sector’s ability to act as a catalyst for the green transition
What should be done?
In 2025, Mauritius saw a record 1.44 million tourist arrivals (see Fig. 1) along with a similarly record gross tourism earning of MUR 103.4 billion. The Axys Hospitality Report notes however that the real revenue per visitor was around EUR 121 per day, which is significantly lower than the historical, albeit stagnant, EUR 139 per day of the past 30 years.
Although notable, the recorded high profitability of the sector has been mostly driven by currency depreciation; post-COVID low interest rates loans granted by the Mauritius Investment Corporation (MIC) and which mostly benefitted the tourism sector; and an 8.9% reduction in labour force across the industry. Moreover, 73% of tourists’ budget is spent in hotel accommodation – compared to 52% about 20 years ago (Axys, 2026). Gains achieved by the tourism sector therefore have a lower multiplier effect on the wider economy.
This phenomenon has accelerated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic essentially due to the working conditions in the sector (working hours, pay, lack of recognition of experience …). Instead of reviewing their organisational structures and human resources practices to accommodate the expectations of Mauritian workers, companies in the sector have opted to rely increasingly on cheaper and less skilled foreign labour and have put pressure on the government to meet their demands. Whilst this approach may enable them to maintain their profit margins and keep hotels running, it also risks coming at the costs of a degraded tourist experience, with a perceived increase in cultural distance to their destination, and a sub-par service.
This reflects a common pattern across the WIO region where dominant product development leaves out local communities, and smaller and/or informal domestic players (Kepher Gona, et al., 2024).
Better integrating local communities, as well as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) is key in ensuring the longevity of the sector and adjacent climate adaptation mechanisms (World Bank, 2026). Participants identified reassessing the current tourism offer as a core prerequisite in achieving this.
Reviewing the tourism offer
One of the major challenges highlighted by participants was the lack of vision and long-term planning. In particular, the lack of data and understanding regarding our tourism offering, our target market, and the expectations of that market were identified as shortcomings. It was therefore recommended that we establish a comprehensive vision for our tourism industry.
To mitigate mass tourism’s environmental impacts, the World Bank currently advocates for Mauritius to shift from a growth model targeting higher arrivals towards a model based on higher spending per visitor. The organisation notes this could be achieved by consolidating the island’s high-value tourism brand. This approach is lauded by multilateral agencies and environmental organisation alike for its ability to simultaneously boost economic growth and safeguard employment all while minimising the environmental impact per tourism dollar.
Among participants, proponent of this strategy indicated boosting high-value tourism would mean working to establish and strengthen clear competitive advantages and maintaining them over the long term. They insisted this is particularly critical from the perspective of customers in the main source markets highlighting that the increased reliance on cheap, low-skilled foreign labour, rather than raising the skill levels and productivity of the local workforce, runs counter to such aspirations of high-end positioning.
But, studies have shown that high-value tourism does not necessarily curtail environmental impacts (Behuria, 2025). First, luxury travellers are more likely to use private jets, which would exacerbate the already high carbon footprint of the industry in Mauritius (currently contributing 39% to the sectors 33.7% total greenhouse gas (GHG) emmission) (see Fig 2.) (World Bank, 2026).
At the same time, high-end tourism carries the risk of further entrenching economic inequalities. The all-inclusive model of tourism in Mauritius has meant, for instance, that visitors’ food, entertainment, and other needs are catered for by luxury hotels, leading to most of the profits remaining within large hotel groups or outside of the country, hence leaving local communities out of the equation. Moreover, luxury tourism would lead to further commercialisation of nature, which, participants noted, would be at odds with sustainable tourism ambitions.
Mauritius should therefore redefine ‘high-value’ not as high-cost luxury, but as a high-yield experiential travel that minimises environmental footprints while maximising direct spend in the local economy.
Advancing inland, cultural, and nature-based tourism
The pressure that mass tourism exerts on the environment is increasingly giving rise to the “moralisation of tourism” (Butcher, 2005) As a result, there is a growing number of people opting for ecotourism packages, for which demand is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 14.3 percent between 2024 and 2032 (Axys, 2026).
Mauritius should capitalise on this trend to diversify its tourism offerings by promoting inland tourism. This would involve investing in eco-lodges, trails, and nature-based experiences, therefore reducing pressure on vulnerable coastal zones and strengthening the industry’s resilience through spatial diversification.
Key policy directive(s):
The development of inland tourism must be paired with the immediate enforcement of an official moratorium on new hotel developments along the coast to halt further degradation of vulnerable marine ecosystems.
- Another helpful measure would be to re-invest in our heritage and cultural assets. Mauritius has started diversifying its tourism offer in that direction by modernising urban and cultural attractions and strengthening local tourism value chains. But, despite growing demand for cultural, and nature-based tourism, progress has been slow due to gaps in infrastructure, marketing, and product development (World Bank, 2026). Establishing an overarching long-term plan for the sector would help stakeholders to anticipates such gaps and accordingly devise actionable solutions.
Transition explicitly from arrival targets to local yield-per-visitor metrics.
Decolonising the tourism sector
Discussions also foregrounded the need to re-examine locals’ relationship with the coastline. Participants highlighted, for example, that we should re-evaluate our territory as more than a commercial asset to be sold to tourists. In particular, they underlined that eroded beaches were compounded by eroded buildings, eroded history, and eroded culture.
For instance, while the National Heritage Fund (Republic of Mauritius, 2003) aims to streamline the management of the country’s heritage, implementation gaps remain. Looking at cultural urban heritage in Port Louis, for example, Bertacchini and Sultan (2019) find that the conservation of urban heritage beyond listed national monuments (such as the Aapravasi Ghat) has been neglected due to economical and modernisation imperatives. As a result, while 25% of inbound tourists report visiting the capital at least once during their stay, cultural heritage is not their primary motivation due to underdevelopment of heritage-related tourism activities (Bertacchini & Sultan, 2019).
Echoing studies on the centrality of decolonisation practices (Agbo & Grimwood, 2024) to achieve the sustainable development goals, the workshop noted that decolonising the tourism industry by investing in heritage conservation would however be key in the sector’s green transition by promoting national identity and creating pathways to local tourism (Akova & Atsiz, 2019).
Key policy directive(s):
Investing in the restoration of cultural tangible and intangible heritage beyond listed historical sites would serve this goal as it has the potential to deepen tourism’s linkages with local communities and support inclusive growth by strengthening the local tourism value chain (World Bank, 2026). In Kenya, for instance, inland wildlife tourism has contributed to workforce skill enhancement by empowering communities through ownership of safari assets, and the co-management of conservation areas (Kepher Gona, et al., 2024). And in Tanzania, investment in cultural heritage, reduced entry[MB1] fees, promotional material presented in Kiswahili, the national language, and campaigns promoting self-valorisation by Tanzanians of their heritage has boosted domestic tourism (Ayikoru, 2024)
Studies on decolonisation in the tourism industry also put forth the need to revalorise and include Global South population as potential tourism consumers, highlighting the sustainable benefits that can be attained through this process. Targeting geographically closer markets would reduce dependence on long-haul travel (World Bank, 2026) and boost the sector’s resilience.
This is especially salient given recent fluctuations in Mauritius’ source markets. While Europe remains the linchpin of the sector, accounting for two-thirds of arrivals in 2025, the market’s growth has been slower (+2.3%) than the Asian (+10.7%), and African (+4.2%) markets (Axys, 2026).
Fostering localised tourism already gained significant traction in the face of the post-COVID 19 fractured global tourism landscape. Investment in domestic and regional tourism has however been scarce due to an overreliance on international tourists (Dieke, 2020). But dependency on international markets foregoes the fact that Africa has the youngest population in the world, with an emerging middle class which could be valorised and engaged in tourism as consumers alongside non-African markets (Myers, 2019).
Key policy directive(s):
To operationalise this geographic shift, the state must actively address cross-border bottlenecks by advocating for improved regional air connectivity and streamlined visa protocols across the WIO region.
Decolonising the sector would also require better integration of local stakeholders into the tourism industry’s value chains as well as into the ecological transition.
Key policy directive(s):
- To better integrate small players, participants recommended establishing a task force to provide technical support to small and medium-sized establishments and to conduct energy audits. By forming groups, informal tourism stakeholders could be formalised and benefit from a clear legal structure that would better integrate them into the value chain (Kepher Gona, et al., 2024). Through an association, these stakeholders could also gain access to financing tools thanks to a strengthened operational framework.
Mauritius could also draw inspiration from the Gambia (Kepher Gona et al. 2024), where a World Bank project facilitated the integration of local communities into blue tourism through initiatives aimed at facilitating access to tour operators and prohibiting hotels from offering excursions independently.
Addressing policy challenges
Policy implementation lags remain persistent across the tourism sector. One expert noted that a lack of understanding of the cross-cutting nature of the sector significantly contributes to this gap. They stressed that tourism is a cross-sectoral economic driver that affects all industrial sectors, including for instance, water, energy, and car rentals. But policymaking remains siloed between such distinct sectors, leading to fractured strategy implementations. Establishing a resilient tourism system would however require setting up destination development policies that look at all of the value chain’s nodes (Kepher Gona, et al., 2024).
Key policy directive(s):
To achieve this, participants recommended fortifying collaboration between the public and private sectors, and civil society. To reduce the dispersion of technical knowhow, knowledge sharing could also be fostered through the creation of a platform that regroups the different studies that have been done on the sector. Mauritius can learn from Réunion’s Observatoire regional du tourisme which gathers data and centralises initiatives.
However, some emphasised that cross-sectoral collaboration should not undermine political decision-making power. One participant for instance lamented that the Black River ICZM plans – a task force regrouping ministries, NGOs, and academia –, finds itself immobilised due to inter-sectorial disagreements.
Key policy directive(s):
To circumvent such bottlenecks, the workshop insisted on the importance of instituting spaces for structured inter-ministerial dialogue that are distinct from those for public-private-civil society collaboration. Science, participants underlined, informs decision-making, but it is the government’s responsibility to devise the roadmap to follow.
Participants also advocated for nurturing a culture of experimentation. To attain this, Mauritius should set up innovation and governance platforms to bridge the gap between different levels of stakeholders and decision-making without being held back by political agendas.
The ICZM plans in some ways responds to this need as it is meant to the test the mechanism in Black River before being replicated elsewhere. It also reinforces regional cooperation which can help create a resilient blue tourism sector guided by shared sustainability goals, and the collective expertise and resources of all stakeholders (Kepher Gona, et al., 2024).
Regional climate adaptation strategies therefore carry the potential of bridging the implementation gaps by fortifying local technical capacities through the integration of neighbouring knowledge.
Optimise the tourism sector’s ability to act as a catalyst for the green transition
Furthermore, several participants highlighted the sector’s ability to serve as a driver of the green transition. Given its cross-cutting nature, the implementation of policies in the tourism industry would make it possible to target all links in the value chain, thereby triggering the green transition in several sectors.
In that sense, participants highlighted that the structured operational framework of hotel groups could serve as a catalyst for bringing together the artisanal expertise that is currently scattered throughout the region. This would not only achieve promoting a cultural tourism but would also serve in better integrating local small and/or informal players into the value chain.
Overall, the workshop advocated for a tourism industry that can thrive entirely on a local and circular economy. By fostering a tourism sector that is more deeply locally rooted, hotel groups could also work to shorten the food value chain by offering local products. This would help reduce the sector’s carbon footprint by decreasing its reliance on imports all while strengthening local food resilience.
Studies have demonstrated the ability of alternative forms of tourism, such as agritourism, to revitalise agriculture (Breton, 2024). By integrating agriculture, tourism, and food sectors, agritourism offers multiple benefits ranging from environmental conservation to economic revitalisation and social cohesion.
It promotes biodiversity, encourages the consumption of local foods, and reduces the ecological footprint through practices such as organic farming and the use of renewable energy. Agritourism can also revalorise rural areas, create jobs, and strengthens local value chains (Partalidou & De Matteis, 2024).
Key policy directive(s):
In this regard, the workshop called for the creation of technical assistance consortia to structurally integrate local SMEs and agro-ecological farmers into the mainstream tourism economy through identification, training, mentoring, and certification of small local players.
Conclusion
Participants emphasised that the sector’s ecological transition was already well underway, thanks in particular to close collaboration between the hotel industry and the Ministry of the Environment. However, several gaps remain. To address these, the workshop highlighted key areas for action, including better integration of small local players, the revitalisation of Mauritian territory at the local level, and tourism offerings more focused on heritage and conservation.
References:
Agbo, V. M., & Grimwood, B. (2024). Decolonisation, tourism, and progressing the SDGs. In Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks (pp. 46–69). https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802203219.00013
Akova, O. & Atsiz, O. (2019). Sociocultural impacts of tourism development on heritage sites. In D. Gursoy & R. Nunkoo (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Impacts (1st Edition, p. 252-264). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351025102
Axys Hospitality Industry Report 2026. (2026). Axys. https://axys-group.com/hospitality-industry-report-2026/
Ayikoru, M. (2024). Pragmatic arguments for decolonising tourism praxis in Africa. Tourism Geographies, 26(6), 917–934.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2024.2335955
Behuria, P. (2025). Luxury tourism is a risky strategy for African economies – new study of Botswana, Mauritius, Rwanda. The Charles Telfair Centre. https://charlestelfaircentre.com/luxury-tourism-riskystrategy-african-economies-new-study-botswanamauritius-rwanda
Boukhris, L. (2023). Decolonization and Tourism. In: Jafari, J., Xiao, H. (eds) \ Encyclopedia of Tourism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_841-2
Breton, J. (2024). Transitions agro-écologiques et tourisme. Études Caribéennes, 59. https://doi.org/10.4000/132zm
Butcher, J. (2003). The Moralisation of Tourism: Sun, Sand...and Saving the World? (1st ed.). Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203987025
Dieke, P. U. C. (2020). Tourism in Africa: issues and prospects. in T. Baum, & A. Ndiuini (eds.), Sustainable human resource management in tourism. Geographies of tourism and global change. Springer. https://content.ebookshelf.de/media/reading/L-13638794-f157977fad.pdf
Doorga J., et al. (Forthcoming). Quantifying Human-Induced Coastal Erosion to Inform Adaptive Governance: A Coastal Vulnerability Index-Based Legal Framework for Mauritius and Dynamic Island Coastlines.
Enrico Bertacchini, Riad Sultan, Valuing Urban Cultural Heritage in African Countries: A Contingent Valuation Study of Historic Buildings in Port Louis, Mauritius, Journal of African Economies, Volume 29, Issue 2, March 2020, Pages 192–213, https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejz010
Kepher Gona, J., Baraka, P., Sciacca, A., Balestracci, G., Rambahiniarison, J., Atieno, L., (2024). Sustainable Blue Tourism in the Western Indian Ocean: Trends, Challenges and Policy Pathways. Blue Tourism Initiative.
iddri.org/sites/default/files/PDF/Publications/Catalogue%20Iddri/Rapport/202409-blue tourism-wio_0.pdf
Defi Media. (2024). “Lutte contre l’érosion des plages - gestion côtière vs projets d’hôtels : le GM et sescontradictions”. https://defimedia.info/lutte-contre-lerosiondes-plages-gestion-cotiere-vs-projets-dhotels-le-gmet-sescontradictions.
Maingi, S.W., Gowreesunkar, V.G. (2024). Tourism Decolonization, Geopolitics, and Degrowth: A Theoretical Case for Tourism Sustainability in East Africa. In: Maingi, S.W., Gowreesunkar, V.G., Korstanje, M.E. (eds) Tourist Behaviour and the New Normal,
Volume II. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45866-8_2\
Myers, J. (2019). 19 of the world’s 20 youngest countries are in Africa. World Economic Forum.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/youngestpopulations-africa/
Partalidou, M. & De Matteis, L. (2024). L’agrotourisme durable: une opportunité pour la transformation des systèmes agroalimentaires méditerranéens – Note technique. https://openknowledge.fao.org/handle/20.500.14283/cd3578fr
Republic of Mauritius. (2003). National Heritage Fund. https://nhf.govmu.org/nhf/
World Bank. Mauritius - Country Climate and Development Report : Toward Sustainable, Resilient, and High-Value Tourism - A Pathway to Private Sector-Led Job Creation and Shared Prosperity : Sector Report (English). Washington, D.C.:
World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099020926131038402
Charles Telfair Centre is an independent nonpartisan not for profit organisation and does not take specific positions. All views, positions, and conclusions expressed in our publications are solely those of the author(s).
Main photo: CTCentre
