Tourism-led and economic-driven nexus in Mauritius: Spillovers and inclusive development policies in the case of an African nation

This study investigates the dynamic linkages between tourism growth and economic growth in the African island nation of Mauritius using the spillover index framework based on the monthly data from 2003M11–2020M02. The Granger causality results reflect bidirectional static linkages between tourism-led economic growth (TLEG) and economic-driven tourism growth (EDTG). The dynamic spillover findings show a varying magnitude and direction of TLEG and EDTG hypotheses that are time-dependent. These relationships indicate distinct outcomes where tourism growth or economic growth is the net transmitter or recipient of shocks. The level of spillovers is influenced by economic events, climatic disasters and the coronavirus-19 pandemic crisis. Some inclusive and sustainable development policy implications are drawn for Mauritius and other tourism-dependent African countries.