Mauritius plans to connect flights to Kolkata and Hyderabad

Kolkata: Mauritius plans to connect Kolkata and Hyderabad when its airline gets permission to operate in more Indian cities.

"Kolkata and Hyderabad are the two new cities for which we plan connectivity. Currently, we are allowed only for four cities and we are flying from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai," Air Mauritius manager, India and South Asia, Vinith G told PTI today.

"So far we are unable to connect with these cities (Kolkata and Hyderabad) due to bilateral restrictions and we are planning to initiate dialogue with India," he said.

Bilateral connectivity negotiations is held once in two years.

Currently only Air Mauritius links Indian cities with the island country.

Meanwhile, Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) country manager Vivek Anand said demonetisation had affected tourist flow by 10 per cent in the last three months. However, that countrys tourism department was looking at double digit growth for the current year.

Last year 83,000 Indians had visited Mauritius accounting for seven per cent of the total tourist inflow to the island country. It conducted five B2B roadshows in Indian cities, which ended with Kolkata today to promote tourism of the country.