The Honorable Minister of Tourism Anil Gayan was invited to participate at the ITB’s Minister’s round table with the topic: Expansion of tourism infrastructure. Ministers from five continents were present. Mauritius was representing the continent of Africa. The moderator of the forum was Damon Embling, World Affairs Reporter of Euronews and the proceedings were streamed live on the ITB website www.itb-convention.com/en/ELIBRARY/LiveStream/index-2.html.
The other participants were:
H.E. Rania A. Al-Mashat, Minister of Tourism, Arab Republic of Egypt
H.E. Hon. Md. Mahbub Ali, State Minister for Civil Aviation in Tourism, Bangladesh
Dr. Manuel Butler Halter, Executive Director, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)
H.E. Hon. Anil Kumarsingh GAYAN, SC, Minister of Tourism, Mauritius
Mariam Kvrivishvili, Head of Administration, Georgian National Tourism Administration
H.E. Hon. Savvas Perdios, Minister of Tourism, Cyprus
Hon. René Trabelsi, Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts, Tunisia
The International Council of Pacific Area Travel Writers Association (PATWA) awarded to Mauritius “WORLD’S BEST ISLAND DESTINATION”. The minister was invited to deliver a speech.
« It is recognition of the quality of the destination that Mauritius is. We want to continue to maintain Mauritius as the best island destination in the world. Receiving an award is not the end of the world, in fact it is the beginning of a journey that must be sustainable in the long term. Although 2019 is a year with challenges, both for aviation and for hospitality we are confident that we will be able to perform than in 2018. «
Mauritius received a second award FVW Medien which is Germany’s leading travel industry magazine and this award was because the destination Mauritius achieved a growth in terms of overnights of 103% in the last five years from the German market.
The minister was invited also to participate on the topic of economic impacts on tourism at the Berlin Economic Forum 2019, the theme is « Sustainable Business and Responsible Investments ».
About Internationale Tourismus-Börse (ITB)
On Tuesday evening, March 5th 2019, the ITB was kicked off with a festive ceremony.
ITB is a very important tourism fair for our destination. All the captains of the hotel industry, all the airlines flying to Mauritius, the tour operators, the travel agent, the specialized tourism journalists and media are present for business and for networking. New opportunities are sought by all stakeholders in order to expand their business and generate more tourists to come to Mauritius.