There are further signs of a strong recovery in the tourism sector over the current peak season (October-March), after a shaky period in the middle of 2010. Tourist numbers were 10.7% higher year on year in December, bringing growth for 2010 overall to 7.3%, well above the government's original target of 5%. Arrivals in the fourth quarter were 9.8% higher year on year, compared with 4.8% in the second quarter and 6.2% in the third. The tourism industry's revenue was up by 9.1% in the first 11 months of 2010 on the same period of 2009.

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Karl Mootoosamy, the director of the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority, has forecast a 7% rise in tourist numbers in 2011, to bring the total to just over 1m. The minister of tourism, leisure and external communication, Nando Bodha, praised this performance but said that the industry needed to diversify away from slow-growing European markets and develop a new strategy, perhaps in partnership with other island destinations, to target Asian markets. Air Mauritius has announced that it hopes to fly to China, via Malaysia, by July 2011. However, there is great concern in the industry over the impact on tourist numbers of the widely publicised murder of Michaela McAreavey, an Irish tourist, on January 10th (see The political scene).