Antsiranana: The new Tourism Office inaugurated in the midst of a cultural festival

The office is a shop window which displays the universe that the tourist can discover while staying in the region’s hotels. Thanks to the collaboration of the phone line operator Telma, the service can enjoy modern equipments. The new building replaces the wooden kiosk which certainly had a nice and welcoming side, but didn’t reflect a good enough picture of a tourist region and the sector’s professionals. 

In Antsiranana, the tourist sector recovered well. The flow doesn’t match the usual high season’s one yet, but professionals are delighted with a certain resumption. Hotels’ reservation rates turn around 50%, up to 60% for the high profile ones. The regularity of flights connecting Antsiranana to the Indian Ocean region’s other cities is a good sign.  In the north, the political situation is rather still, this is encouraging a quicker recovery than in other regions as in Antananarivo. 

Diego-Suarez is no more the city’s official name, however it remains the usual trade name in French. The northern city owes it to a couple of Portuguese sailors, Diégo Diaz who disembarked on August 10th of the year 1500, and Fernando Suarez, who discovered the Sugarloaf Bay in 1534. 

“The development of our city depends on the protection of our belongings and our culture “, so sounded the Libertalia festival’s theme. On the program, there was music, sport, a sensitization on protection of the environment, and a promotion of History and traditions. The enhancement of the city’s cultural treasures is a contribution to the promotion of tourism. The youths are encouraged to re-connect with the practice of traditional music. 

The Libertalia festival was, therefore, some kind of birthday party for Antsiranana. This name belonged to an utopian republic which actually existed in the Great Isle during XVIIth Century. This small State had been founded on irremovable principles as freedom and equality for people, religions and races.