An Assessment of Sustainable Tourism and its Opportunities in Mauritius

Sustainable Tourism integrates governance, economic, socio-cultural and environmental dimensions of tourism in tourism development and management. Growing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) concerns suggest that, traditionally, tourism tends to corrupt the very resources it needs to thrive, and thus its sustainability over the long haul has become of general concern. However, despite the vast and extensive literature dedicated to this field, the concept of sustainability in tourism remains somehow at its embryonic stage, especially in the case of a small island developing state (SIDS). With tourism being one of the pillars of the Mauritian economy, this paper explored its different sustainability implications and impacts with the use of different frameworks: the United Nations World Tourism Organisation's framework and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council's guidelines. The research sketches a portrait of the current tourism practices in Mauritius and suggests sustainable tourism opportunities for the Mauritian tourism sector. Given the qualitative and narrative nature of this research, a scoring method system was used to enable data analysis. Findings from this research overall concluded that despite the increased importance of sustainable tourism, the need for managed tourism and the formulation of general principles and guidelines, tourism governance; poverty reduction; and the sustainability of the natural and cultural environment were identified as areas of particular need and should be considered with high priority for intervention/action. To improve the competitiveness of this tourism destination on its road to sustainability, the management mechanism and governance system should be reviewed, the responsibility of tourism as a contributor to poverty alleviation and social inclusion should be considered, and finally, the carrying capacity of the destination as it relates to the sustainability of the social, natural and cultural environment should be recognised as intrinsic components of the, so to speak, goose that so far has laid the golden egg.