On Friday, Mauritius made it known to the world that it is suspending all commercial flights from South Africa as from Monday, November 29. The reason being that Government seeks to contain risks of propagation of the new variant feared to be more dangerous that the Delta variant. A Government official statement also said any passengers who have been physically present in South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe will be denied entry or transit through Mauritius.
However, as the virus spread to Europe and other parts of the world, a number of countries are imposing travel bans from the whole of the Southern African region. Saudi Arabia has yesterday made its decision to extend its travel ban to seven other Southern African countries public.
Malawi, Zambia, Madagascar, Angola, Seychelles, Comoros Islands and Mauritius make the list.
In the first ten months of 2020, Mauritius welcomed 19,156 tourists from South-Africa and only 3916 in 2021. 4981 tourists from Saudi Arabia visited Mauritius during the same period in 2020 and in 2021, there were 1531.
In the next few days, Mauritius will have to persuade the United Arab Emirates not to do the same as Saudi Arabia. Official figures show that in 2020, Mauritius welcomed 1,566 tourists from the U.A.E. between January and October compared to 729 in 2021.
