One way of addressing the negative effect of tourism is the imposition of tourist taxes. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to look at the various forms of tourist taxes in Mauritius and the perceptions of tourists relating to effective tourist taxes in terms of their willingness to pay tourist taxes, the existence of a clear and precise legislation, the appropriate amount of tax to be collected and the uses of this tax money. The study explores the current of Mauritius, where tourism has always been seen as among its key pillars that sustain its economy and helped it to flourish.
To achieve these research objectives, the black-letter research method was used, which comprised the legal analysis of provisions surrounding tourist taxes to collect secondary data. In addition, some 25 tourists were targeted to conduct a semi-structured interview, particularly those who have visited Mauritius and have stayed at least one night in the country.
The findings reveal that the positive effect of tourist taxes will only be experienced if tourists are willing to come to the destination country and pay the tax, the willingness of which in turn relies on several factors established by existing studies. These were identified as the readiness to pay, the existence of legislation, the perceived optimal tax amount and the perceived uses of tourist taxes.
To the best of the author’s knowledge, at present, this study is amongst the first academic writings on tourist taxes in the context of Mauritius, and it is being carried out with the aim of combining a large amount of empirical, theoretical and factual information that can be of use to various stakeholders and not only to academics.
