DUBAI, UAE - January 2012 - Emirates and the Mauritius Ministry of Tourism today signed an agreement aimed at jointly promoting the island destination across the airline's global network.

At the signing ceremony, which was held at the Emirates Headquarters in Dubai, Mauritius was represented by Honorable Michael Sik Yuen, Minister of Tourism and Leisure, Mrs Premila Roy, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Leisure, Mr. Robert Desvaux, Chairman of the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority and Dr A. Karl Mootoosamy, Director of the MTPA. Majid Al Mualla, Emirates' Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations - West Asia and Indian Ocean, and Oomar Ramtoola, Emirates' Manager for the Indian Ocean Islands, represented the airline.

Emirates and Mauritius will engage in the development of a series of joint activities to increase the visibility and awareness around the 100+ destinations to which the airline flies.

"The island of Mauritius is a great product and constitutes an important destination amidst our network," said Mr Al Mualla. "We strongly believe in its potential and our regular increases in frequencies on this route demonstrate that our promotion strategy is the right one and is bringing concrete results. We seize this opportunity to thank the Government of Mauritius for their trust and support."

He added, "The promotion of Mauritius has always been an integral part of our strategy. We are now renewing our commitment to the destination and want to achieve even more together. I am extremely confident that results of all our joint actions and marketing efforts will be seen in a very short span of time."

Honorable Michael Sik Yuen, Minister of Tourism and Leisure, stated: "This is indeed a new window of opportunities for Mauritius and will enable the country to role out a new growth scenario and marketing strategies for targeting, through Emirates Airline's and Emirates Holidays' network, the Middle East region including its related peripheral markets and the Nordic countries in Europe. Mauritius is constantly improving its attractiveness and has a wide portfolio of offerings: golf, medical tourism, cruising, shopping facilities and inland tourism. Our ambition is to remain the World's Leading Island Destination. This collaboration between Mauritius and Emirates is geared towards attracting upmarket visitors with a higher capacity to spend".

During their mission in Dubai, the Mauritian delegation met with Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline.

Emirates is one of the fastest growing airlines in the world and has received more than 500 international awards for excellence. Emirates now flies to 118 destinations in 70 countries.

The airline reported a net profit of US$1.5 billion for the last fiscal year. Emirates operates 168 wide-body Airbus and Boeing aircraft, and has orders for an additional 237 aircraft, worth more than $84 billion.

The Dubai-Mauritius route is serviced by 11 flights a week.