ABSTRACT
This chapter estimates the tourism impacts of the Pope’s visit in Mauritius on September 9, 2019. With the aim of understanding the underpinnings undertaken by various stakeholders for this event which was focused on the Pope and its devotees emerging from the local community as well as foreign countries, the pre-visit planning was captured as well as some of the possible impacts that may have emerged from the Papal visit. Sources of information used in this study were mainly press articles and other secondary data sources. Often, topics dwelling on religious aspects are considered as being reflective, requiring deeper analysis, but this study being an exploratory one rather provided a general opinion. The originality of this chapter rests on the context chosen, which is Mauritius, a Small Island Developing State. Hence, understanding the impacts of the Papal visit on Mauritius, which is known to be prone to environmental and climate change impacts with a growing tourism sector and yet appearing to be vulnerable, was constructive. This study discussed different probable types of impacts that the Pope’s visit on the island may have brought to the fore, namely: socio-tourism impact, marketing-tourism impact, environmental-tourism impact, political-tourism impact and technological-tourism impact.
