Mauritius: Small Restaurants Face Severe Crisis
For restaurants located on the coastal areas, business is mainly from tourism. Mauritius too comes under the same category. Although Mauritius has seen a boom in tourism over the last few years yet the scene as regards small restaurants has remained unchanged.
The trend that is observed is that although the tourism flow has increased yet it is not an assurance that people coming here would eat in the restaurants. It is observed that most of the tourists especially those who want a calm, quiet and relaxed vacation just stick to the hotel and have their three meals there itself.
Even among the localites it is seen that the high cost of living has led to a decrease in the number of people visiting restaurants. A number of factors together have resulted in reducing the number of people who visit the restaurants:
- Rise in costs
- The rise in costs has made people think twice about what they eat out.
- People have become more aware about the costs of what they eat as compared to the earlier situation where quality was the only factor that decided what they ate.
The off-season time also creates a lot of problems for the restaurant owners, as the tourist inflow during this time is very less. Summer is the peak season for tourism and therefore, during the off-season the number of people visiting the country and also the restaurants is also very less.
The end of July would see a jump in tourism, as there is an increase in tourists especially from the Reunion Island who come to enjoy the beautiful settings of Mauritius. The months after July is expected to see an increase in tourism and also expected to be a good time for the restaurant business as well.
Even with an increase in tourism and the subsequent increase in the number of people visiting the restaurants, the restaurant owners also have another concern, which they have to overcome – the rise in competition. The increasing competition among the restaurant owners has made it very difficult to get customers.
Whatever be the speciality and however big the spread, the tourists always looking for value for money and would always compare the costs. The Japanese restaurants have managed to give the others a run for their money as these restaurants offer great food for a great price.
An increase in the items on the menu is not incentive enough to get the tourists to visit their restaurants. The hotel that the tourists stay in offer them all the amenities and the best in food and service making it absolutely unnecessary for them to venture out and explore the other available options.
Low manpower is another factor, which is adversely affecting the restaurants. The restaurants find it extremely difficult to get people as the offers in the big hotels are very attractive for the local people and therefore they turn to the big hotels for work.
For the small restaurants importing labour is also not a viable option. The big fat pay packets at the big hotels is a great attraction for chefs and retaining labour as well as getting new people is becoming increasingly difficult for the small restaurants. The chefs whom the small restaurants manage to get and train are also soon gobbled up by the big hotels leaving the small restaurants with no option but to start from scratch all over again.