The Independent Mauritius

Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority’s (MTPA) efforts to promote the island as a dream destination paid off.

It retained the crown of the World’s Leading Island Destination at the World Travel Awards (WTA) for the third consecutive year.

The event was held at the Katara Cultural Village, Qatar on Wednesday.

The president and founder of the WTA, Graham Cooke handed over the award to the chairman of the MTPA, Robert Desvaux.

The island bagged World’s Leading Beach Destination – Trou Aux Biches and World’s Leading Luxury Island Resort Maradiva Villas Resort and Spa awards.

Desvaux expressed his pride and said that the award is a recognition of not only the natural beauty of the island but also the legendary hospitality, the hard work and the sustained commitment to improve the industry.

“The brand attributes of the island testify: the security, safety, stability and peaceful social atmosphere prevailing on the island, the warm hospitality, uthenticity and welcome of its rich and culturally diverse population,” said Desvaux.

He added that the award is a testament to the world class quality of the island’s hotels, the wide variety of products offered, the excellent service, natural landscape, and above all, the life-affirming values that drive the country and the industry values inspired from our historical and cultural heritage.

Those values are inscribed in the Code of Ethics of the local tourism industry, which serves as a moral building block to sustainable development.

The awards also recognised the efforts made by the country to go green and to progressively adopt renewable energies, giving substance and meaning to the ‘Maurice Ile Durable’ national initiative.