Hospitality Sentiment Survey 2020

The COVID-19 outbreak brought the world to a standstill, and the hospitality sector is one of the hardest hit economic sectors, mainly due to the introduction of travel restrictions. In Mauritius, the hospitality sector represents a fair share of the economy and one of many forecasts made about the impacts of the pandemic is a contraction of 20 percent, which will span over the next three to five years.

The sanitary crisis has also other unquantifiable impacts on the tourism sector including the loss of livelihoods of locals, loan repayment commitment of impacted businesses, low to no occupancy rates of hotels that may lead to temporary or permanent closure, and cash flow issues.

In the face of these hardships, the Government has come forward with certain supporting measures such as the extended Wage Assistance Scheme for tourism sector, prolonged loan moratoriums and low interest rates, the waiver of the rental payment of state lands for the upcoming financial year to tide over the liquidity issues. The Mauritius Investment Corporation (MIC) has also been set up to propose investments in eligible companies through different investment tools including both equity and quasi-equity instruments.

The Deloitte Hospitality Survey report provides the market sentiment of the leaders from the major hotels, resorts, villas, and business hotels in Mauritius on the budgetary measures, the current challenges, key focus areas, and the way forward for hospitality industry in the current and post-COVID times. Whilst the report conveys what people shared during the survey, it also provides Deloitte’s point of view based on our global and industry expertise.