Destination Nature striving for advertisement

Madagascar was allowed to hem itself in rows of French exhibitors into the basically French national “2014 New Trail Tours Salon ” for matching the qualifications of the event’s “Destination nature” theme. The Great Isle mainly represented an exotic bunch of biodiversity in the ” Discovery of products from the end of the world” panel. The main challenge to the National Tourism Office of Madagascar was however more a rescue operation of a damaged reputation than the introduction of any new offer. The chairman of its Board of Directors regretted an alleged radiation of unaccurate information which must have been misleading scores of tourists. “We have to diffuse positive information while keeping away from lies,” recommended Eric Koller. The details of the idea pleaded by the chairman of the National Tourism Office of Madagascar consist in emphasizing that the island has recovered constitutional order, a major factor for the development of tourism as a matter of fact. “People are largely not aware that elections have been carried out ,” he said. Madagascar as a destination keeps suffering from outdated warnings issued by some tour operators long ago, which would no longer match local political and security realities on the ground. The situation would be everything but a cause for concerns, and the eventual incidents prompted local security forces to react accordingly and efficiently secure major sites. Hikes, as well as hiking competitions organized by the National Tourism Office of Madagascar every month,  are included into the classic tours in the Analamanga region. The Highlands’ hills, everlasting witnesses of the Merina kingdom’s history, open up to foreign led ecological and cultural discoveries. Trekking tours provide with an outlook over authentic villages filled with daily life scenes from people making a living as traditional artisans as those of their own ever used to, or with the opportunity to learn about the history of the Lords of Ambilobe for instance. The Sustainable Tourism pack in the Vakinakaratra region includes the exploration of local villages on foot, by bike or by motorbike. The main treks lead through the National Protected Areas of Isalo, the recently opened Andranara Park in Fort- Dauphin, or back to the North, to stare at the famous Tsingy of Bemaraha. As for the National Tourism Office of Madagascar, it rather tours fairs and exhibitions to revive the crippled sector. Madagascar will have to draw the focus on its cooking art and its famous spices. The press will be invited in 2014, and invited to produce reports about the Malagasy cuisine. The articles will highlight local customs and traditions significantly more than beaches, whales and nature. The 3rd round of the International Tourism Fair Madagascar (ITM ) 2014 will besides take place from May 15th to May 17th in Antananarivo City. a forum supposed to serve best the recovery of the Malagasy tourism sector. Such a positive development is expected to be triggered no later than this year by the resumption of growth in the main European markets.