Mauritius Tourist Arrivals: Official Figures for 2025 and Early 2026
Tourist arrivals in Mauritius in 2025 and the first half of 2026, by market and type of accommodation, from Statistics Mauritius.
Mauritius welcomed 1,436,250 tourists in 2025, 3.9% more than in 2024 (1,382,177). In the first half of 2026, Statistics Mauritius counts 668,471, up 1.5% on a year earlier. Demand is still high, but growth is slowing and shifting between markets, and that matters if you are buying a property to let to holidaymakers.
How many tourists a year, and since January 2026
Statistics Mauritius defines a tourist as a non-resident who stays at least one night, for less than a year, with no employment link to a resident. Travellers who stay less than a night and Mauritian residents are not in the figure.
| Year | Tourists | By air | By sea |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 997,290 | 990,099 | 7,191 |
| 2023 | 1,295,410 | 1,275,263 | 20,147 |
| 2024 | 1,382,177 | 1,348,400 | 33,777 |
| 2025 | 1,436,250 | 1,411,791 | 24,459 |
Most of the rise in 2025 came by air (up 4.7%), while arrivals by sea fell 27.6%. The start of 2026 is mixed: the first quarter is up 6.8% (348,445 tourists against 326,389), then the second quarter drops. Subtracting the quarter from the half-year leaves about 320,000 tourists for April to June 2026 against about 332,500 a year earlier, nearly 4% fewer. That last calculation is ours, based on the two official releases.
Where tourists come from
France is still the biggest market, with almost one tourist in four. The United Kingdom and Germany, the second and fourth markets in 2025, move in opposite directions in 2026.
| Country of residence | 2024 | 2025 | Change in 2025 | Change in H1 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| France | 339,421 | 337,502 | −0.6% | +0.8% |
| United Kingdom | 158,188 | 154,990 | −2.0% | −16.0% |
| Réunion | 140,618 | 145,029 | +3.1% | −0.6% |
| Germany | 123,825 | 122,166 | −1.3% | +13.4% |
| South Africa | 106,542 | 110,287 | +3.5% | +7.1% |
| India | 56,788 | 75,808 | +33.5% | +11.9% |
| All countries | 1,382,177 | 1,436,250 | +3.9% | +1.5% |
In the first half of 2026, British tourists fall from 71,382 to 59,954 while German tourists rise from 53,117 to 60,227. India, which gained more than a third in 2025, keeps growing but more slowly. A year of overall growth can hide a change in who is coming, and the visitors to one district or type of property are not the island average.
Where tourists sleep: hotels lose share, the rest gains
This is the most useful part for an owner. In Statistics Mauritius’s survey of tourists as they leave, 67.0% stayed in a hotel in 2025, down from 75.4% in 2024. Other types of accommodation gained ground:
| Accommodation | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel | 75.4% | 67.0% |
| Tourist residence | 8.7% | 10.9% |
| Friends and relatives | 12.2% | 19.6% |
| Guest house | 3.3% | 2.0% |
Package holidays fell over the same period, from 59.5% to 38.7% of tourists. Those who arrange their own trip stay 13.4 nights on average, against 8.0 nights on a package.
Tourists who do not stay in a hotel remain 17.8 nights on average, against 8.0 in a hotel. They also spend less per night: about Rs 1,900, against Rs 11,700 for a hotel guest. The average stay across all tourists is 11.3 nights. The most common length is seven nights, which accounts for 17.3% of visitor departures in 2025.
“Tourist residence” is the category the survey uses. It does not say how many villas, apartments or rooms it covers, or what they rent for. For prices, see our article on weekly villa rental.
What these figures cannot tell you
The official releases count people, not properties. They give no occupancy rate, no number of properties let to tourists and no owner’s income. One more tourist does not mean one more night in a particular villa: that depends on the area, the season and the type of property.
Seasonality is strong. In 2025 the busiest month is December, with 164,753 visitor arrivals, and the quietest is February with 96,854 (these totals include travellers who stay less than a night, according to the Statistics Mauritius Tourism digest). A property let by the week has to absorb that gap between months.
Tourist spending reached Rs 104.4 billion in 2025 against Rs 95.6 billion in 2024, of which Rs 67.3 billion went on accommodation. That sum is shared between hotels and other accommodation, with no split by type of property in the tables we read.
What to do with these figures before buying to let
They justify looking seriously at short-term letting, and not working it out as if every week were booked. Three checks come before the purchase price. First the legal framework: Tourism Authority licence and tourist fee, and for a PDS property, what the estate’s rules allow. Then the area: the markets that are growing are not the same everywhere, and a tourist area such as Grand Baie should be judged on its own data, not the island average. Finally the alternative: compare with long-term letting and the rental yields we have observed. To place a property’s price, the property prices page gives benchmarks by town, and the new developments page lists current offers.
Figures from Statistics Mauritius for 2025 and the first half of 2026, as at October 2026. The digest states that its figures are updated as further releases come out.
Sources and checks
- Statistics Mauritius, International Travel and Tourism, year 2025
- Statistics Mauritius, International Travel and Tourism, first quarter 2026
- Statistics Mauritius, International Travel and Tourism, first semester 2026
- Statistics Mauritius, Survey of Inbound Tourism, year 2025 (July 2026)
- Statistics Mauritius, International Travel and Tourism Statistics, 2025 digest (September 2026)
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