Madagascar Struggles to Keep up with Demand for Ecological Tourism
11/11/99
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Title: Madagascar struggles to keep up with demand for ecological
tourism
Source: Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 11, 1999
Byline: Katya Robinson
ILE SAINTE MARIE, Madagascar -- When you step out of the crowded
airport on this exotic island, you are greeted by a rickety reception
hut with gaping holes in the roof.
"Informations Hotels," a sign says.
But no one is inside to talk about the hotels, despite the faded
advertisements on the thatched walls.
Outside, the area has become an impromptu coconut market.
Still, most of the hotels and bungalows on this island 6 miles off
Madagascar's mainland have been full in recent months. It's the peak
of the whale-watching season.
The scene dramatizes in miniature the state of tourism across
Madagascar. The remote Indian Ocean island nation is enjoying a
tourism boom, thanks to its natural attractions ranging from humpback
whales and lemurs -- a kind of primate found nowhere else -- to
unspoiled beaches and virgin rain forests.
But big infrastructure problems, such as a lack of welcome centers,
limited eco-tourism facilities, horrendous roads and a dearth of
hotel rooms -- to name a few -- threaten to halt further growth.
"The insufficient quantity and quality of tourism infrastructure, as
well as the level of professionalism of some tourism operators, pose
big obstacles to the tourism boom," Olivier Raveloarison, secretary
general of the Tourism Ministry, told a recent national meeting on
the state of the industry.
"Too much success could bring bad publicity," said a more blunt
Gaston Randriamiakatra, director of the ministry's department of
studies, programs and promotion. "If we are able to attract
500,000 tourists a year, but they are poorly received, it will be a
catastrophe."
Tourism is a relatively recent phenomenon in Madagascar, following
the country's emergence from the socialist isolationism of the 1980s.
It has been an economic boon to the world's 13th-poorest country and
is the second-biggest source of foreign currency, next to fishing.
The number of tourists doubled between 1994 and 1998, when a record
121,207 outsiders visited Madagascar. Most were from Europe, followed
by the United States. A well-publicized cholera outbreak pushed the
trend down by 4 percent in the first half of 1999, but optimistic
tourism officials project 350,000 visitors by the year 2005.
World Bank officials attribute much of the growth to the loosening of
government control over aviation and the simplification of entry visa
rules in recent years.
Now government officials are trying to continue the positive trend,
establishing tourism promotion zones in an effort to attract foreign
investment and targeting the growing international eco-tourism
market.
"Eco-tourism is the future of Madagascar," Randriamiakatra said. "It
rests with us to improve the facilities to welcome eco-tourists, like
eco-lodges around protected areas and national parks."
That means a lot of building. Madagascar has fewer than 7,000 hotel
rooms. Some big developments are planned, including a Club Med, but
so far there are few lodges around the country's 44 national parks
and protected areas. Constructing more requires the development of a
broader infrastructure.
An example is the pristine national park on the Masoala peninsula in
the northeast. The largest stretch of primary rain forest in the
country, the park covers dramatic coastline and forested mountains.
It is an ideal eco-tourism destination, but tough to develop.
"Eco-tourism development cannot take place independent of development
in other fields -- health infrastructure, education and training,
transport, telecommunications, not to mention the traditional tourism
infrastructure," says Matthew Hatchwell, country representative for
the Wildlife Conservation Society, which is working with the
government to manage the park.
Those developments must capitalize on Madagascar's world-renowned
biodiversity without spoiling it, say environmentalists.
In addition, tourism development must benefit local people, say aid
workers, or else impoverished families will encroach on the country's
last forests in search of food and farmland. Wrong steps on either
front could spell the end of Madagascar's biggest tourism attraction
-- its environment.
Tourism officials point to at least one alternative attraction: a
total solar eclipse visible from southern Madagascar on June 21,
2001.
For information: Contact Maison du Tourisme de Madagascar (MTM),
Place de lindDependance, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar, B.P. 3224.
Phone: 261-20-22-351-78. Fax: 261-20-22-325-37.
A helpful Web site address is www.madagascar-contacts.com