Island destinations face unique challenges in promoting inland tourism and, like many island destinations, Mauritius faces challenges in promoting inland tourism development, including over-reliance on coastal and marine tourism resulting in pressure on the environment and social inequalities. After the pandemic, there has been growing interest in developing inland tourism as a way to diversify the tourism product and enhance the customer experience. This project examines the potential of inland tourism as a driver of tourism development in an island destination, using the inland region of Chamarel, Plaine Champagne and Petrin as a case study. This region consists of a combination of cultural tourism and nature-based tourism. Mauritius has recognised the potential of inland tourism to enhance the customer experience and has launched initiatives to promote inland tourism. These include the creation of nature reserves, cultural villages such as Chamarel, and eco-lodges, as well as the development of hiking and mountain biking trails (Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority, 2021). However, tourists' customer perceptions of these regions in the context of inland tourism development have not been examined and there is still potential to improve customer experiences to develop a consolidated inland tourism product offering.
Keywords
Inland tourism,tourist needs,customer experiences
Language
English
Publisher
Mauritius Research and Innovation Council
Content Classification
Brief
Funding Agency(ies)
Mauritius Research and Innovation Council; University of Technology,Mauritius
