Mauritius in the top 10 again
After featuring on BA’s top 10 for 2011, Mauritius once again makes in among the top tourist destinations worldwide in 2012, competing with the likes of New York, Las Vegas and Dubai.
A recent trend report released in October by Hayes & Jarvis, a UK-based holiday firm that belongs to TUI Travel, revealed the top 10 most popular long haul holiday destinations worldwide:
1. New York
2. Thailand
3. Maldives
4. Las Vegas
5. Mexico
6. Mauritius
7. Dubai
8. Florida
9. St Lucia
10. Antigua
On the way up
According to Hayes & Jarvis, the Far East gained a lot of ground from the last report 6 months ago but New York takes the top spot because of its popularity for both summer trips and Christmas shopping. Twin centre holidays also helped it and Las Vegas secure top ranks. Twin centre holidays focus on two main cities not necessarily close to each other and are popular with holidays in the US.
Thailand features in second place despite the political turmoil of the last few years in part due to aggressive price cuts by Thai Airways.
Mexico’s presence in the list is due to direct flights to Cancun launched by British Airways as well as competitive all-inclusive holiday packages to this area.
Multi-centre holidays trend
According to this report, demand is on the up for multi-centre breaks in the Far East, combing destinations as far apart as the Middle East and the Far East and this apparently helped propel Thailand to the top.
Mauritius could copy this idea and pair up with neighbouring destinations to offer a holiday package: Dubai, Maldives and Seychelles could all be contenders and have already made their reputation in luxury travel.
Price-cut popularity contest
All in all, destinations that have seen the most growth have seen prices falling. This makes sense as holidaymakers in recession-hit countries look to save as much money as possible. Getting to the top of the list is nearly a matter of cutting prices. In fact, the report highlights the overall poor performance of the Indian Ocean region with Mauritius bucking the trend due to prices being frozen.
Here at MauritiusHolidaysTips.com, we believe there is much scope for Mauritius to climb to the top without the need to cut prices any further. The beaches are already there, the weather is great all year round, so add some serious marketing to spread the word and hopefully we can see better results next time. People want value for money – offer that to them!