Madagascar
Doggart, C.
International Tourism Reports 1: 24-44
1994
DOI: 10.1080/00369229308732610Document Number: 239328
The first government of the new Third Republic in Madagascar which was proclaimed in 1993 promises to give priority to the development of tourism after years of neglect. This change of heart coincides with a rapid growth in visitor arrivals since the mid-1980s. The sector's contribution to GDP and employment is still small, but tourism has overtaken traditional traded commodities to become the second most important source of export earnings. Hotels, restaurants and tourism services are concentrated in the capital, Antananarivo (Tananarive), and a few regional sun and sea resorts. Madagascar's nature reserves, with their extraordinary flora and fauna, receive relatively few visitors and are difficult to visit because of the dilapidated state of the roads. One in three tourists to the country is French and the connection with France remains strong. Accommodation capacity has grown rapidly, although most hotels are small, and occupancy rates are satisfactory. Rehabilitation of airports and of the road system, liberalization of international air traffic and improvements in property and investment laws are particular priorities for the government's contribution to tourism development. This programme would help to accelerate private investment in Madagascar's unrealized potential for both high-volume beach holiday resorts and for low-volume, high-value nature and other special interest tourism.