The signing ceremony was held at the Emirates headquarters in Dubai.

Mauritius was represented by Michael Sik Yuen, minister of Tourism and Leisure, Premila Roy, permanent secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Leisure, Robert Desvaux, chairman of the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority and A. Karl Mootoosamy, director of the MTPA.

Majid Al-Mualla, Emirates’ senior vice president, commercial operations — West Asia and Indian Ocean, and Oomar Ramtoola, Emirates’ manager for the Indian Ocean Islands, represented the airline.

The Dubai-Mauritius route is serviced by 11 flights a week.

Emirates and Mauritius will engage in the development of a series of joint activities to increase the visibility and awareness around the 100+ destinations to which the airline flies.

“The island of Mauritius is a great product and constitutes an important destination amidst our network,” said Al-Mualla.

“We strongly believe in its potential and our regular increases in frequencies on this route demonstrate that our promotion strategy is the right one and is bringing concrete results. We seize this opportunity to thank the government of Mauritius for their trust and support.”

He added: “The promotion of Mauritius has always been an integral part of our strategy. We are now renewing our commitment to the destination and want to achieve even more together. I am extremely confident that results of all our joint actions and marketing efforts will be seen in a very short span of time.”

Minister Michael Sik Yuen said: “This will enable the country to roll out a new growth scenario and marketing strategies for targeting, through Emirates Airline’s and Emirates Holidays’ network, the Middle East region including its related peripheral markets and the Nordic countries in Europe. Mauritius is constantly improving its attractiveness and has a wide portfolio of offerings: Golf, medical tourism, cruising, shopping facilities and inland tourism. Our ambition is to remain the world’s leading island destination. This collaboration between Mauritius and Emirates is geared toward attracting upmarket visitors with a higher capacity to spend.”

During their mission in Dubai, the Mauritian delegation met with Tim Clark, president Emirates Airline.