Air access liberalisation, marketing promotion and tourism trade

Mauritius - 1 May 2018

Trade topics: Tourism

The objective of the present study is two-fold. Firstly, to assess the impact of air access liberalization on tourism demand for Mauritius and secondly to analyze the dual impact of the interplay between air access liberalization and marketing promotion efforts on tourism demand. Using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag model, the results suggest that air access liberalization is an important ingredient, albeit to a lesser extent as compared to other classical explanatory variables, of tourism demand. The results also highlight the fact that Mauritius is perceived as a luxurious destination and tourists are also deemed to be price sensitive. Moreover our dynamic approach interestingly confirms the presence of repeat tourism in the island. Finally, the findings also uncover the positive impact of the interplay between air access liberalization and marketing promotion efforts on fostering tourism demand.

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