The Contributions of Enclave Tourism to Community Wellbeing in Mauritius: Host Community Perspective

Abstract

Despite tourism being recognised as a promising growth sector in many Small Island Developing States (SIDS), its contribution to community wellbeing has been neglected. The current study is set within the context of tourism development in a SIDS and examines the positive and negative outcomes of enclave tourism to community wellbeing in Mauritius. International tourism to Mauritius has developed significantly over the past 30 years with the hotel industry being the most dominant form of tourism enclave. Although, large resorts provide the environment for attracting tourists to destination communities, it remains unclear how this form of tourism contributes to community wellbeing in Mauritius. Moreover, although past studies have been conducted on enclave tourism in SIDS, there is no study which has specifically been undertaken on the contributions of enclave tourism to community wellbeing. Therefore, the aim of this research is to assess the host community’s perceptions regarding the contributions of enclave tourism in Mauritius. Given the lack of information on the topic, a theoretical sample with in-depth interviews was used amongst key informants of the destination. The findings reveal mostly similarities amongst the interviewees and identify that enclave tourism contributes to community wellbeing in seven domains namely: Economic, Social, Environmental, Cultural, Leisure, Educational and Political. The findings reflect that although the economic benefits of enclave tourism has a greater potential to contribute to community wellbeing, better policy and planning are needed to unleash the opportunities for entrepreneurship which are currently limited. Moreover, the findings show that tourism development in Mauritius occurs on an ad hoc basis with short-term gains, which limit the potentials of and negatively affect community wellbeing.