The reopening of Mauritius to vaccinated travellers at the beginning of October puts an end to a long-standing frustration with an island much appreciated by French and European tourists. " Planes fill up fast. Two of our hotels are already fully booked for All Saints' Day" Véronique Berthier, Vice President Sales and Marketing Europe at The Lux Collective, one of the leading groups on the Indian Ocean island. Visit light protocol for people protected against the pandemic now only require a PCR test to be carried out 72 hours before departure and two antigen tests on site, on the first and fifth days. " They are taken care of by the hotel. Once these tests have been carried out, there are no restrictions on visiting the island." she describes.
If tourists return to Mauritius, business tourism should follow suit. " This may take a little more time for the MICE segmentThis is likely to be in the second half of 2022" says Véronique Berthier. Despite its "CSR incompatible" remoteness, the destination still seems to be popular. " In our discussions, we sense a real revival of interest in MauritiusThis is because it is a "safe" destination, with the vast majority of the population vaccinated.says the hotel group's sales and marketing manager. Incentive breaks, thank-you trips: I'm convinced that this will all pick up again, because there's been so much frustration recently. "The upturn in Mauritius will be a boost for the whole region, particularly the neighbouring island of La Réunion, where the Group is also present, with a hotel that is once again welcoming MICE groups as part of operations that had been postponed because of Covid.
To support the recovery of tourism in Mauritius, The Lux Collective group will unveil on 1 December a new hotel in the north of the island, at Grand Baie. Sophisticated yet relaxed, LUX* Grand Baie will have 116 rooms, divided between 86 suites, 8 villas with private pools and 20 penthouse residences with individual pools. There will also be a spa, a fitness centre and three restaurants, one on the beach, another on the rooftop by the infinity pool and a third offering Asian fusion cuisine with a gastronomic twist. " Although the hotel only has a small boardroom-style meeting room, all these areas can be made private for MICE groups." explains Véronique Berthier, who also highlights the proximity of LUX* Grand Gaube, just a 10-minute drive away, which includes an 80-seat auditorium-style cinema.
While LUX* North Male in the Maldives and LUX* Bodrum in Turkey have disappeared from the Group's portfolio, others will be added, particularly in Asia. At the end of 2022-beginning of 2023, Lux will open on the island of Phu QuoqA 193-room hotel on stilts in the middle of the jungle, overlooking an unspoilt bay. Also in Asia, The Lux Collective group will be continuing to expand along the Tea Horse Road, which runs through the mountains of Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan. Its offer will increase from seven to ten establishments by the end of 2022, with retreats immersed in their environment, some with no more than six rooms, like Lux Daju Village.
Another major development, much closer to home, is that the Group expects to launch in spring 2023 a hotel in the south of FranceLUX* La Baraquette Resort & Residences. Set in the heart of a wine-growing estate on the shores of the Etang de Thau, the site is ideal for a wide range of MICE operations in the off-season.
But the five-star brand is not the only one to be developed by the LUX group, which became The Lux Collective at the beginning of 2019. For several years now, the mauritian hotel industry has opened up to new segments such as casual resorts with the Salt brand, all-inclusive resorts with Tamassa, a four-star brand adapted to business groups, and soon urban resorts, with the Socio brand, expected in 2023 at Trianon, a business park near Port-Louis. These are all brands born in Mauritius that could extend their footprint elsewhere in the world.
