A well-prepared, eloquent and laudatory speech on Mauritius and its first phase of reopening. In a live interview on CNN last Thursday night and a second on BBC World News, Deputy Prime Minister, Steven Obeegadoo has praised our pandemic management system and all the implementation by his ministry for the success of this first phase of reopening. The Minister of Tourism has named Mauritius a ‘Relatively Covid Safe Country’ given the number of 60% of vaccinated people reached.
Guarantee by the Resort Bubble concept
For our country’s reopening to tourism, there were two beautiful international coverages on CNN and BBC News. Led by Minister Steven Obeegadoo, our strategies and concept of Resort Bubble have been put forward to give the guarantee to a larger audience that Mauritius is safe for a getaway in a luxurious country. “We are privileged to be able to welcome them in our bubbles of quarantine hotels before allowing them to discover the jewels of the country,” he pointed out.
A loss of Rs 21.5 billion
At the same time, he explained that our destination relies on safety by “prioritizing the health of our population, we opted for a complete lockdown and a total closure of our borders as soon as Covid-19 invaded our country“. Hence, the reason why Mauritius opted to open its borders well after the other beach destinations in the Indian Ocean. On both channels, the DPM focused on the safety measures of aircrew and hotel staff as well as all the adopted sanitary gestures. Revealing the government’s estimates of 650,000 tourist arrivals in 12 months, he has pointed out that Mauritius has recorded a loss of Rs 21.5 billion, in terms of tourism revenues following Covid-19. It should be highlighted that the tourism sector accounts for a quarter of our GDP and provides a quarter of national employment. This explains the urgency of reopening of the borders to the tourists leading to economic recovery.
Confidence in our different pandemic management
Wishing to be reassuring from start to finish, on a question of the threat of the Delta variant from which no one is spared, he simply replied that the strategy put in place in Mauritius differs, in many aspects, from other countries. He enunciated that Mauritius maximizes on the acceleration of its vaccination campaign, revealing the proportion, “six out of ten adults received a first dose and four out of ten adults received both. We are relatively Covid Safe.” He also recalled that Mauritius is managing the pandemic situation in an exemplary manner that has earned him the congratulations of WHO and President Joe Biden.
He publicly disclosed a future investment of Mauritius in the vaccine industry where, 7% of the GDP will be injected with a goal of export to Africa.
