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afrol News, 18 February - Madagascar's new Minister of Tourism is increasing diplomatic efforts to seek a revival of tourism to the exotic island after last year's political unrest practically closed down the industry. Madagascar will be present at all major upcoming tourism fairs. "Madagascar - paradise rediscovered" is the new ambitious slogan of the island, which ecologically has been termed the eighth continent. While paradise's inhabitants still are licking their wounds after last years political strife, the subsequent economic collapse and this year's cyclone and flooding, the government is emphasising on island beauty abroad - not a contradiction, as the Ministry holds, because a revival of tourism would help fight poverty. The new Malagasy Minister of Tourism, Roger Mahazoasy, is engaged in a wide range of diplomatic initiatives to promote Western tourism to the island, the Ministry today announced. The Ministry has assured French and US economic support for rebuilding and expanding promotion facilities in Madagascar and abroad, while Madagascar's London embassy is to secure arrivals of English pensioners. The first victories had already been achieved by last year, when Western governments dropped all warnings against travelling to Madagascar. The British Foreign Ministry for example states: "The majority of visits to Madagascar are trouble-free." The German Foreign Ministry however still warns against individual trips due to the "administrative hurdles, poverty-related crime, occasional shortages and poor or lacking transport and news connections." The Malagasy Ministry of Tourism is to address these problems and in particular to reconstruct the ailing image of the island, once noted for peace, stability and tranquillity. A French euro 580.000 grant is to help set up new tourism information offices, presenting the "rediscovered paradise". Infrastructures are already being repaired to prepare for the returning tourists. Late last year, several tourism complexes were reopened, including Andilana Beach on Nosy Be Island, which can accommodate 250 tourists. By year's end, capacity had reached accommodation for 65.000 tourists, and constructions and reconstructions are still going on. On the agenda are also the rehabilitation of the bridge of Ivoloina and the re-establishment of several regional flights in the Province of Toamasina (Tamatave). Workshops in Madagascar have also focused on giving tourism to the island new perspectives as the image abroad has to be rebuilt. The initiatives are within the government plan for "fast development of Madagascar", which in particular addresses poverty. An action plan against sex tourism has been approved. Further, tourism, which to a big degree depends on Madagascar's unique nature, must be ecological, it is concluded. Ecotourism is seen as both the easiest concept to sell to potential Western tourists and the only sustainable way to assure continued arrivals to the off-the-beaten-track island. The new message from Madagascar will be presented at a multitude of international travel fairs in the coming months, the Ministry announces, including Switzerland, Berlin, Lyon and Paris fairs. Spokesperson Laingo Andriasolomahefa of the Malagasy Tourism Ministry says there are also talks with several international tour operators to reengage in ecotourism in Madagascar. The Malagasy embassies in the UK and the US were also negotiating programmes of organised travelling to the island. So far, however, there are only direct flights between Antananarivo and Paris, in addition to some regional cities such as Johannesburg. The Malagasy Ministry has not yet registered any significant increase in arrivals since the end of the political crisis. The German government's official online travel information on Madagascar is characteristic of the European wait-and-see attitude. "Madagascar became increasingly popular as a tourism destination due to its unique flora and fauna, its varied landscape and the accommodating manner of its inhabitants," the Germans note. Whether this tendency would continue after the political crisis "remains to be seen," they however add.
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