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The Perfume Island pays dearly for the tragic set of events which led to the execution of two French nationals and one Malagasy citizen back in the first days of October 2013, an incident which occured in the run of rumored organ transplant smuggles. The subsequent series of cancelations of reservations immediately followed a few days long surge of tensions and strafes over the island. Security forces did successfully restore order, still, six months later, tourism related business keeps struggling to recover in Nosy Be. Together with hotels and restaurants, 80% of the local population’s economic activity happens to be closely intertwined with tourism.
In response to this crisis, Nosy Be’s Regional Office of Tourism calls upon France to review its stand. The categorization as “orange” practically bans tour operators from sending tourists to Nosy Be island at all. It consequently keeps raining cancelations, and booking rates remain no higher than 10% for hotels used to welcome French clients. The island as a whole records during the year 2014’s first three months figures fluctuating between 4 and 25%. Together with the sector of tourism, transportation companies, tourism based show businesses, craftsmen, fishermen, vegetable merchants and villagers are all hit by the economic downturn.
Nosy Be island keeps hosting some 700 resident French nationals, all very well integrated into the local society. The mass exodus must have had no ground to materialize. Nosy Be’s French community widely views the tragedy of October 2013 as an isolated incident, and does not notice any sign of rising xenophobia anywhere. Besides, many locally based tour operators calling upon this “unfair” retaliation against Nosy Be to be lifted up by France happen to be French nationals anyway.
The Malagasy President made a priority out of Nosy Be, the main international tourist magnet of the Great Isle. The State generously supports the local 2014 Security Plan thought up by local authorities and private operators, and effectively provides with necessary financial and material means to make the island and its marine vicinities utterly secure.
The effectiveness of these measures to make Nosy Be as peaceful as it ever used to be still has to convincingly reach the outside world. The government strives for “a firm message to be spread throughout tour and tourist providing countries; bearing in mind that security in Madagascar turns out to be a much lesser concern than in scores of other countries”.
Although the international Trip Advisor recently dubbed Nosy Be the most gorgeous island of Africa, the business is nowhere near to its way back to recovery. Even the few tourists settled in their hotels are amazed by the low number of visitors they come across over such a dream island. Hotels do not throw the towel for so much yet though, and keep on investing to revive the sector. For instance, the airline company Air Madagascar is on the verge of opening direct corridors from La Reunion island, Marseille and Johannesburg to Nosy Be. Still, most of these efforts are but doomed if France’s orange scarecrow keeps standing any longer on the way.
Nosy Be is generally not used to low seasons all over the year. But with its 10% low booking rate, inn keepers and hotels reach an unprecedented record low. Tour operators and those of their kind appear apprehensive, regarding the French foreign office's led categorization of the tourism oriented island of the north of Madagascar as "orange", do understand a potentially risky destination. Considering that such an assessment clearly scares tourists and tour operators off and significantly undermines the sector of tourism, they keep straining to give evidence of how much positively the situation has been evolving ever since, and that past security issues are now history on the island.