- Consolidation of hotel groups by way of merger. This will bring various synergies by having a bigger portfolio of hotels. There would be automatic head office cost reduction and management cost per hotel bed post-merger. Also allow strengthening bargaining power vis a vis Tour operators who have traditionally been controlling the market.
- Any hotels or hotel groups that have received support via wage assistance schemes and or any other bail out funds should not be allowed to declare dividends till refunds of government funds.
- Head office costs should be cut by at least 25% to be eligible of bail out money from government
- Government to provide following:
- Guarantee support to existing debt providers who could defer debt payment (capital and interest) for at least 12 months.
- Guarantee support to existing debt providers who could extend debt repayment to beyond 10 years.
- Quasi equity (government should ask existing shareholders to match every rupee that government will inject)
- Equity (government should ask existing shareholders to match every rupee that government will inject)
- Government to provide working capital facilities to approved and licenced small and medium operators. These could be a 3 to 5 year credit line at 1% interest rate.
- All management and marketing fees stripped by head office from hotels should be frozen till repayment of bail out money from Government
- Freezing of all land taxes as land lease for 2020 and 2021
- Environment tax to be frozen for 2020 and 2021
- Double tax deduction on expenditure incurred on training courses for employees
- A six-month deferral on the payment of monthly income tax instalments
- A discount scheme on monthly electricity bills for one year of 25%
- Waiver or reduction of duties and taxes for hotels that might decide to go for refurbishment for next 2 years. Since there would not be sufficient volume for all hotels to operate at the same time and a slow start to full recovery, it would be best for a number of hotels to unplug and go for refurbishment in the coming 2 years.
- Waiver of 75% of all taxes for tourists from regional markets and 50% for international markets
- The new normal would include standards and protocols such as social distancing at airports, masks on board, digital check-in, contactless payment, and rigorous hygiene, sterilisation of luggages, vapor tunnel to disinfect passengers among other thing. All these should be exempted of taxes.
- Rebrand Mauritius as a wellness tourism jurisdiction and not only our 3S.
