Mauritius says tourism revenues fall 4.5 pct year/year in Q1

Reuters
Tourists watch bottlenose dolphins in Tamarin Bay on the West coast of Mauritius in a file photo. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi

PORT LOUIS (Reuters) - Mauritius's earnings from tourism dropped 4.5 percent in the first three months of 2014 compared with the same period last year to 11.51 billion rupees ($382 million) due to fewer visitors to the Indian Ocean island, data showed on Tuesday. Tourism is a key source of income for the island's $10 billion economy, but long-haul luxury destinations like Mauritius have suffered since the global economic downturn. Statistics Mauritius said visitor arrivals in the first quarter fell 1 percent to 263,293. But it said it expected numbers for the full year to rise 3.7 percent from 2013 to 1,030,000. The number of tourists from Europe, the biggest source of visitors to the island, fell 4.4 percent year-on-year to 151,695 in January-March, the statistics office said. But in one bright sign, Statistics Mauritius said visitor arrivals in April came to 88,404, up 16 percent from 76,223 in April last year driven by tourists from Europe and Asia. ($1 = 30.1200 Mauritius Rupees) (Reporting by Jean Paul Arouff; Editing by George Obulutsa)