Indian Ocean
Exotic, relaxing and luxurious
The Indian Ocean resorts are a dream holiday destination offering an idyllic backdrop of world-class hotels, crystal clear waters and pristine sandy beaches. Casinos are a key offer on many of the island resorts. Here, we take a look at Christmas Island, the Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Mauritius.
Far-flung exotic islands in the Indian Ocean boasting emerald waters and luxurious resorts are a dream destination for many of us and the figures prove it. Tourism has been increasing steadily over the last decade or so due to better air connections.
With Asia, Africa and Australia all bordering this vast expanse of water many of the top airlines now offer economy flights to the island resorts. For example, there are direct flights from the UK to Mauritius, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, whilst the airport on Mahé in the Maldives extended its runway last year to welcome super jumbo flights.
Te longer runway is part of Mahé airport’s expansion plans whilst other destinations such as Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar and Reunion Island have all collectively seen the number of scheduled flights rise by around 30 per cent over the last five years.
Sri Lanka remains the largest destination, with Colombo Bandaranaike Airport looking to expand following a surge in demand, aiming to increase the airport’s capacity from six million to 15 million passengers per year and the island will
build a second terminal due to open in 2021. Te airport is bursting at the seams and exceeding its capacity with 9.9 million travellers using the airport in 2017.
Meanwhile, the Seychelles is anticipating a growth in tourism figures after BA announced the reintroduction of a route between Heathrow and the Seychelles International Airport on Mahé last year after an absence of 14 years. Edelweiss Air began flights from Zurich last year and Air France has resumed its link from Paris Charles de Gaulle to the island after a 20 years.
Links to the Asian market are also being developed. Air Seychelles has signed a code share with Air India on flights to eight Indian cities as well as its own service from Mahé to Mumbai and Johannesburg.
Asian visitors to Mauritius doubled between 2009 and 2015 whilst the Maldives is extremely popular with mainland Chinese visitors, who made up 30 per cent of visitor arrivals in 2015.
Mauritius airport has seen passenger numbers increase by 25 per cent since 2013 and the major
Te Seychelles is anticipating a growth in tourism figures after BA announced the reintroduction of a route between Heathrow and the Seychelles
International Airport on Mahé last year after an absence of 14 years. Edelweiss Air began flights from Zurich last year and Air France has resumed its link from Paris Charles de Gaulle to the island after a 20 years. NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA P11
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