Empowering Mauritian Tour Operators and Hotels for a Sustainable Post-Lockdown Restart @sus_island1 The coronavirus pandemic, climate change, unsustainable production and consumption practices – the challenges faced by the Mauritian tourism sector are many. The Sustainable Island Mauritius project (SIM) organised a series of online workshops to inspire and empower tour operators, hotels, and other relevant stakeholders to become more sustainable and resilient in light of these challenges. The workshop series focused on supporting the local stakeholders to develop, promote and deliver sustainable products and services as a way of overcoming current challenges, but also as potential for growth and more resilience. The five-session online series consisted of inter-dependent thematic workshops, each building on the next and was held over a period of nine weeks in May and June 2021. The participants had a chance to exchange with experts and receive supporting tools to develop new products and services. During the workshop series, the participants dived deep into a number of topics including global trends and local challenges; products, services and their impact; measuring, communicating, and marketing sustainability progress, and more. One of the workshops connected to the parallel running workshop series focussing on increasing value for the Mauritian handicraft and design sector—to support each-other’s efforts in reaching more sustainability. The workshop series tackled various relevant questions, such as: What are the global trends and local challenges that influence Mauritian businesses? How can individual businesses contribute to a sustainable island? How can they evaluate their products’ sustainability or measure and track their overall sustainability? A central focus was also exploring how sustainability could help improve the image and profile of Mauritian businesses and how they could access green finance as a means of support. A number of tools created within the SIM Project were shared with the participants, including tools for impact monitoring, company self-diagnosis, product diagnosis, how-to flyers and guidelines as well as communication tools. In between the workshop series the project also offered one-on-one expert coaching sessions to participants on how to use the tools and increase their positive impact. The interactive and question & answer sessions incorporated in all the workshops ensured for active engagement as well the capturing of insights and ideas from the participants. As a next step the SIM project and the Mauritius Tourism Authority have invited Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) that took part in the workshop series to become one of the project’s pilot hotels or tour operators. Pilots will receive support and guidance in using the tools to thrive and increase their positive impact. To learn more about the project, visit the Sustainable Island Mauritius website or download the brochure. For further questions, please contact Kartika Anggraeni.