Madagascar needs to decide how it wants to position itself as a tourist
destination versus its more famous East African neighbours. The choice
is simple, to cater to its traditional market of mostly French visitors
who enjoy it as a good value beach resort and biodiversity 'hotspot'
with extraodinary endemic wildlife (most famously lemurs and chameleons),
or to reach out to wider UK and US markets with new tourism products.
In 2003 the President startled the world by announcing his intention
to triple the area of Madagascar's protected reserves to account for
10 percent of the country. Conservational International, with whom
I am currently with in Madagascar along with a party of UK and US
tour operators, have been asked to support the Government and Tourist
Board in conservation and tourism planning.
There has been extensive consultation with local communities adjacent
to these Parks, and one of the hopes is that income from tourism will
improve their lives and create sufficient income for them to desist
from cutting down their remarkable forests and illegal hunting.
I feel that the big trends in UK and US tourism are for real and authentic
experiences rather than those created for tourism. We want to participate
in both the cultural and natural heritage of places, for example no
safari to Kenya is now complete without a community experience. In
Madagascar this means learning how to spin silk, catch fish, sit with
a village elder learning about their taboos (or fady), or find and
identify wildlife rather than be spoon fed by a guide or guide book.
We also increasingly want to feel that our holiday is a responsible
one that helps support local communities and conservation. In 2001
I wrote in this opinion column that culture was the sleeping giant
of African tourism, and that a failure to identify and market this
could partly explain why African tourism has grown so much more slowly
than Asian tourism. After my time here I believe that there is nowhere
that this is more true than Madagascar.
There are many great wildlife destinations around the world and competiton
is tough. To reach out to new markets beyond France, and to generate
sufficient income for communities to make the Presidents conservation
and development dream a reality, Madagascar must widen its appeal
by embracing responsible tourism that brings together both its cultural
and natural heritage. When it does this it will join the A league
of African tourism destinations.
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