The African Union Summit’s presidential villas transformed into luxury hotels

Concerning the 50 presidential villas destined to accommodate African presidents during the cancelled summit of the African Union last year, they have been transformed into luxury hotels. Indeed, due to the political crisis that started in the beginning of 2009, and the exclusion of Madagascar from the African Union, the Great Island could not host the summit. Having failed to sell the presidential villas, the company “Sogecoa” decided to transform the villas, which are built on an area of 12 ha, into a five stars luxury hotel. Equipped with the latest innovations in terms of accommodation devices, these presidential villas can be made available for high standing customers since the minimum overnight accommodation costs 600.000 Ariary per villa.

The transformation of the presidential villas into hotels also presents a business opportunity for Madagascar because the Great Island now possesses an infrastructure that could accommodate Chinese tourists since the national airline Air Madagascar has recently launched a direct flight to China and Bangkok. The Minister of Tourism, Irene Andreas, put the stress on the importance of this establishment for the national economy which is the result of the cooperation between China and Madagascar. Actually, the hotel establishment employs over eighty people, most of which are Malagasy. The establishment even plans to send in China many of its Malagasy staff to improve their hotel management skills, so that they will be able to take care of the entire management of the establishment.

It is to be noted that for the year 2010, the Ministry of Tourism claims to have reached its goal in increasing the number of tourists visiting Madagascar at a rate of 20% compared to that of last year. The ministry supports and supervises tourist and crafts operators in order to develop the sector, following the roadmap that determines the overall objective of the ministry. For this year, the Minister, Irene Andreas, has taken up a challenge to reach 200.000 the number of tourists visiting Madagascar when their number was 142.300 last September.

For the occasion, the Minister, Irene Andreas, and four other people were raised to the rank of Commander of the Malagasy National Order by the Chancellor Etienne Ralitera. Two other employers inside the Ministry have obtained the rank of Knight of the Malagasy National Order. The General Manager of the company “Sogecoa”, in his turn, was given the title of Officer of the Malagasy National Order.