Mauritian luxury hotel group, Sun Resorts has made a pre-tax loss for the first half of the year, with warnings of tough trading conditions which it blamed dwindling tourist arrivals from Europe and a strong rupee.

As contained in a report by Reuters, the hotel group said that the strength of the rupee and the cost of the air fare to Mauritius remained major issues for the company’s financial performance.

Sun Resorts went down from a profit of 40.9 million rupees ($1.3 million) a year earlier, to a pre-tax loss of 21.4 million rupees ($695,000) in the first six months to June 30.

“The depreciation of the euro and the Rand against the Rupee in this quarter did not help although we have noted a slight adjustment in the rupee exchange rate this month,” Sun Resorts said in a statement.

Earnings per share fell from 0.60 rupee to 0.04 rupee a year earlier.

Sun Resorts said; as the growth in tourist arrivals is expected to be subdued given the tough trading conditions and shrinkage in the air access capacity to Mauritius, the next quarter would remain difficult.

The euro zone’s debt woes have hit the island’s tourist industry, which generates about 10 percent of Mauritius’s gross domestic product. European tourists account for two thirds of arrivals.