Boom time for African tourism.

Despite the threat of international terrorism and high aviation fuel costs, recent figures from the UN's World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and the Word Travel and Tourism Council (WCCT) indicate that sub-Saharan Africa's tourist sector is booming. Sub-Saharan Africa provided the world's most rapid growth in 2005 while the overall growth of continental tourism was double the global average. An increasing number of African states are enticing foreign visitors, while more Africans are discovering the delights of neighbouring countries. The industry as a whole certainly does have a down side in terms of consuming resources and putting pressure on natural environments, but properly managed it can boost economic growth and promote understanding between different peoples.

Africa registers record growth

Total travel and tourist revenues for the whole of Africa were expected to generate $73.6bn of GDP in 2005, equivalent to 8.8% of the regional economy. The sector also provided 3,877,200 jobs directly and a total of 10,647,000 jobs indirectly in 2005, or 6.8% of all employment in sub-Saharan Africa.

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According to UNWTO figures for 2005, tourism revenues were up 10% on 2004, around double the global rise of 5.5%, as sub-Saharan Africa provided the most rapid growth of any region. Visitor numbers increased at roughly the same pace with total numbers up from 33.3m in 2004 to 36.7m in 2005. The number of visitors to sub-Saharan Africa from outside the region increased even more sharply, up 13% to 23.1m.

The most rapid growth was recorded in Kenya, where the number of visitors increased 26% on 2004--which itself was a big increase on 2003--and Mozambique, where the number of visitors increased a massive 37%.

Kenya's success was partly the result of the sector rebounding from a decline in 2002 and 2003, but Mozambique is certainly a rapidly growing destination, partly because of its increasing popularity among South African tourists.

The rise in the more established tourist destinations was more modest, although in North Africa, Egypt registered a 6% increase, Morocco 5% and Tunisia 8%.

Tourist sector revenues were sharply hit by the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US and the subsequent war on terror. The East African tourist hotspots of Kenya and Tanzania were also affected by a number of bomb attacks, principally those on the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi; but while the industry is particularly prone to domestic or international instability, it is also used to dealing with it.

Although visitor numbers in many African countries fell in 2002 and 2003, they have since rebounded strongly and the Kenyan government has announced that the country earned more from tourism in 2005 than ever before.

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The secretary-general of the UNWTO, Francesco Frangialli, argued: "The tourism sector has gained substantially in resilience over the past years. In spite of the turbulent environment we live in nowadays, destinations worldwide added some 100m international arrivals between 2002 and 2005."

The latest UNWTO report states that the terrorism threat will continue to hit growth in the tourism sector but it also adds that "experience shows that its impact lately has been rather limited and short-lived". The UNWTO, which is based in Spain, predicts that Africa will continue to lead the way in tourist sector growth in 2006.

However, there is certainly plenty of room for growth in the tourist sectors of many African countries. More than 15 times as many tourists visited a European as an African country last year and indeed more tourists visited Spain alone than the entire African continent.

The number of global tourist arrivals reached 800m in 2005, so there is no reason why Africa should be content with less than 5% of this total. The WTTC reports that the African tourism industry will be worth $147bn by 2015 in terms of GDP, employing 14,222,000 people in the region by the same date.

This is the result of a recognition by hotel owners, tour operators and governments alike that Africa is an increasingly attractive proposition for tourists and that there is money to be made from what is one of the world's biggest and fastest growing industries.

Pros and cons 

One of the most difficult questions is determining whether tourism has a positive or negative impact on a country. Many African states have traditionally relied on the export of agricultural commodities, which has resulted in very vulnerable economies. Tourist revenues can also fluctuate very widely according to changes in fashion and political or security crises; so it could be argued that concentrating on developing a tourist industry would merely accentuates this vulnerability. Yet at least it helps to widen the base of a national economy and provides another source of revenue.

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It is equally difficult to assess the pros and cons of tourism on infrastructural investment. While a rise in tourist numbers often leads to higher investment in roads, airports and other transport infrastructure, it generally also absorbs more water and power resources. This could trigger the construction of a new power plant, improvements in a nation's power grid or the replacement of ageing water pipes, thereby benefiting many people, but it can equally divert scarce resources away from already embattled residential and industrial consumers.

The president of the International Institute for Peace Through Tourism, Louis d'Amore, says: "Of the 49 least developed countries, 46 of them now have tourism as the largest foreign exchange earner." This can either be a good indication or a damning one, depending on whether the concentration on tourism has helped to generate such poverty or is helping to end it.

Uganda's minister of tourism, Akaki Ayumu Jovino, argues the latter. He says: "With proper planning, the people will not be exploited. In Uganda, 20% of all gate receipts go directly to local communities to spend on projects as they see fit. It is becoming our number one foreign exchange earner. Our studies also show that one tourist means eight jobs, not just in the tourism industry but also in agriculture and all the support businesses." After the chaos of the 1970s and early 1980s, Uganda now attracts over 500,000 tourists a year and a tourist industry has been borne out of virtually nothing.

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The Mission Africa initiative, which was launched by the International Council of Tourism Partners (ICTP), aims to triple tourism income on the continent by 2015. The president of the ICTP, Geoffrey Lipman, strikes a more balanced view, arguing that only properly planned and directed tourism can benefit a national economy as a whole. He says: "It will have to deliver to local communities; it will have to meet sustainability criteria; it will have to meet international anti-corruption and fair trade tests."

Africa has many of the attractions that lure tourists to other parts of the world in the form of sun, sea and sand, while the variety of different cultures and environments provide a host of cultural attractions that are only just beginning to be tapped.

It does, however, have other attractions that other parts of the world cannot compete with. The pros and cons of the impact of a traditional East or Southern African safari may be debated but it is possible to limit the environmental impact of visitor numbers through careful management. In addition, Africa can offer tourists far more opportunities to view large mammals and birds in their natural habitats than anywhere else in the world.</p> <pre>

2005 The economic value of % of tourism in sub-Saharan $bn (unless sector Real growth Africa

otherwise stated) total (inflation adjusted) Personal travel and 22.6 5.8 7.4 tourism Business travel

10.7 - 8.6 Government expenditure

1.6 1.5 4.6 Capital investment 12.3

11.9 5.8 Visitor exports 16.4 7.9 11.0 Other exports 10.1 4.9 8.0 Total travel and 73.6 - 7.9 tourism demand T & T industry GDP 18.8 3.3 9.3 T & T economy GDP 49.6 8.8 8.0 T & T industry direct 3,877,200 jobs 2.5 5.9 employment T & T economy indirect 10,647,000 jobs 6.8 4.2 employment

2015 The economic value of

% of tourism in sub-Saharan $bn (unless sector Real growth Africa otherwise stated) total (inflation adjusted) Personal travel and 46.0 6.5 5.9 tourism Business travel 19.1 - 5.0 Government expenditure

2.8 1.6 4.3 Capital investment 23.3

12.0 6.1 Visitor exports 35.9 8.2

6.7 Other exports 20.1 4.6 5.0 Total travel and 147.2 - 5.8 tourism demand T & T industry GDP 36.4 3.6 5.7 T & T economy GDP 95.8 9.4 5.7 T & T industry direct 5,441,400 jobs 2.8 3.4 employment T & T economy indirect 14,222,000 jobs 7.2 2.9 employment </pre> <p>Kenya, S Africa lead the charge

East Africa

Deepening the safari experience

East Africa is the quintessential African tourist destination, as non-Africans have visited the region as tourists since long before independence. The key for Tanzania, Kenya and the new destinations of Uganda and Rwanda is maintaining the best of what originally attracted visitors to the region, while attempting to diversify their tourist industries to encompass a far greater range of attractions. In recent years, the most successful step in this direction has been the emergence of the twin-centre holiday.

Such holidays have proved most popular in Tanzania, where visitors spend around a week on the traditional safari circuit, encompassing the Serengeti and Lake Manyara national parks and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. They are then transferred to either the mainland coast for a beach holiday or to Zanzibar, where there are the usual sun, sea and sand attractions of a tropical island, but with the added cultural interests that the archipelago offers. Some visitors also opt to spend an additional week climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

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Twin-centre holidays allow tourists to have some input on designing their ideal holiday but with almost the entire organisation taken care for them. They also spread the positive benefits of tourism around the country. The development of Kilimanjaro International Airport was partly in response to this trend and partly in order to cut out Kenya from the circuit.

Although poaching and human population growth have cut the numbers of elephants, lions and other large mammals over the past hundred years, there are some success stories and the more money a country earns from tourists who come to see wildlife, the more investment they will make into protecting their natural habitats. The key to balancing tourist development and environmental protection over the next decade or two will be to encourage tourists to visit a greater variety of areas.

At present, the safari circuit in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania attracts the bulk of safari tourists. Yet Tanzania alone has vast national parks that are rarely visited, including the huge Selous National Park in the south of the country, which contains a large range and huge numbers of animals. Such regions are rarely visited because of the lack of infrastructure, particularly in terms of transport--but road improvements and the construction of new airfields or airports will help the economies of more isolated regions to develop.

Many tourists are put off by the notion of driving around with a host of other off-road vehicles in the Serengeti or other national parks. A tour that takes in fewer animals but provides greater solitude is generally more atmospheric and attractive to the typical visitor. More specialised trips to see particular species or perhaps walking safaris in safer areas are likely to experience most growth over the next few years. Areas such as Kigosi National Park and Rungwa Game Reserve would be ideal for more small-scale developments.

Protecting the environment

The Tanzanian government has long pursued a policy of trying to attract more wealthy tourists and has used national park fees and permits as one mechanism for moderating demand and reducing the environmental impact of tourism. Indeed, from the start of January this year, fees for Kilimanjaro National Park doubled from $30 a day to $60 a day, while the rate for the Serengeti increased from $30 to $50 a day. The planning officer of the Tanzania National Parks Authority (Tanapa), Allan Kijazi, commented: "We need to protect the environment. There is a lot of demand from tourism and we need to control the numbers in order to maintain the ecological integrity."

Kijazi hopes that diversification will help to minimise the negative impact of the sector. He said: "At the moment we have a lot of photographic safaris in the Serengeti and we need to introduce other activities like walking safaris." It is estimated that 25,000 people attempt to climb Kilimanjaro each year but it is expected the higher fees will have a real impact on numbers because the trip takes up to a week to allow for altitude acclimatisation.

The mountain has also become a symbol of the conflicting tourism ambitions of Kenya and Tanzania. Until about 1990, Kenya attracted the vast majority of visitors to the region. Even many of the tourists who visited Tanzania's Serengeti National Park did so on day trips from Kenya.

Changes to the Tanzanian investment climate, the construction of the Kilimanjaro airport and the promotion of Tanzania as a tourist destination have all enabled Kenya's southern neighbour to catch up. However, a low-level argument broke out last year between the two countries after the Kenyan minister of tourism, Morris Dzoro, told a tourism conference that Mount Kilimanjaro was one of Kenya's top attractions. Kenyan tourist literature has long featured the mountain, which actually lies totally inside Tanzania, and Dzoro's claim annoyed many in the Tanzanian tourist industry.

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Southern Africa 

Five-star treatment for two-star prices

It is difficult to overestimate the potential benefit of tourism to the South African economy over the next two decades. The country is already by far the most attractive tourist destination in Sub-Saharan Africa and tourism is South Africa's biggest foreign exchange earner, but there is plenty of room for expansion.

Of the 36.7m tourists to visit an African country last year, around 7m went to South Africa and the total number of tourists attracted to the country increased by 11% from 2004 to 2005.

The figures underline a dramatic period of growth for the South African tourism sector, as fewer than three million tourists visited the country in 1994.

Many potential tourists refused to visit the country because of apartheid but the sector now employs 1.2m people and so further expansion would go a long way to tackling the country's unemployment and underemployment difficulties.

As more independent tourists visit South Africa, a larger number of independent bed and breakfasts, cafes and restaurants will become sustainable, and thereby the economic benefits of the industry will begin to spread out from the main visitor attractions.

The country's success is down to a number of factors, but probably the most important is the strength of its infrastructure. South African airports are up to international standards and the road network enables visitors to move around once they arrive. Electricity and water supplies are generally up to the same standard as in industrialised nations, while there are plenty of hotels and other accommodation to supply the increasing number of visitors.

One of South Africa's other major attractions is the considerably lower cost of most goods and services in relation to Western Europe and North America where most tourists come from.

Although the cost of intercontinental flights puts off some visitors, it is now far more common to take a 10-hour flight for a holiday than it once was; however, when they are in the country, visitors usually spend less than they would elsewhere in the world.

Visitors pay only a fraction of what they might in their own countries while enjoying very high standard restaurants, hotels, golfing and other sport related activities. In addition, the vast majority of South Africans speak the world's lingua franca, English.

The country's main attractions are its beaches, including those around Durban; wildlife in areas like the Kruger National Park and the growing number of privately owned wildlife reserves; Cape Town, with its cosmopolitan atmosphere, penguins and history; and the vineyards of the Garden Route to the east of Cape Town.

However, the tourist authorities are increasingly promoting niche holidays, such as bird watching or hiking. The Drakensberg Mountains in particular offer plenty of opportunities for short walks or long hikes and again South Africa can benefit from its location in the southern hemisphere to attract hikers keen for some sunshine during the northern hemisphere winter.

South Africa is also well placed because it is an ideal holiday destination during the southern hemisphere summer for the bulk of the world's tourists who live in the northern hemisphere. At just 10 to 11 hours flying time from Western Europe, it is also within easier reach than Australia for European visitors, who are the most active tourists in the world.

According to the chief executive of South African Tourism (SAT), Moeketsi Mosola: "The positive trend in foreign arrivals mirrors both the global resurgence of travel that took place last year and the continued efforts of all our stakeholders". Examining the figures for the second quarter of 2005, he said: "Compared to the same quarter last year, we have seen a 19.7% increase in total foreign direct spend (TFDS) in rand terms. This means that every visitor to South Africa spent, on average, R408 more. The TFDS increase from R8.6bn to R10.3bn is both impressive and encouraging, as a key element of the Tourism Growth Strategy is to grow both volumes and value."

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Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia

Neighbouring countries have also benefited from the South African tourism boom, both from non-Africans visiting other parts of Southern Africa but also because of the increased propensity of South Africans themselves to visit the rest of the region. According to SAT, the number of South African visitors to Mozambique rose 53% between mid-2004 and mid-2005. New hotels are being built in Maputo, largely as a result of the Mozambican capital's proximity to South Africa, but there is certainly a great deal of room for expansion.

While Western European tourists visit South Africa because of its low costs, South Africans in turn find Mozambique a low-cost destination. As the reputation of Mozambique improves in line with the country's economic and physical recovery from the effects of its civil war, more and more people from Johannesburg are choosing to drive the relatively short distance to the Mozambican coast.

As the country's tourist sector infrastructure improves on the back of this influx, it could become a much more attractive option for non-African tourists. Botswana and Namibia are also both benefiting in the same way: the former offers the unusual attraction of a waterborne safari in the Okavango Delta, while hiking in desert mountains is becoming popular in the latter.

South Africa is becoming a popular destination on a global scale for some more unusual forms of holiday. Health sector tourism, where patients fly to lower cost destinations, has particularly been associated with India in the past, but the high standard of some of South Africa's private sector hospitals is encouraging those requiring operations to head south for their treatment. Some patients are offered a two, four or even six-week package of flights, the required operation and a two to four-week holiday on safari or by the beach, where they can recuperate or access medical facilities if things go wrong.

West Africa 

Gambia, Senegal set for growth

While millions of tourists visit North, East and Southern Africa, West and Central Africa receive relatively few visitors. Political instability, civil wars and poor infrastructure have prevented the growth of a significant tourist sector in most of Central Africa, although almost all countries in the region have the raw materials to make for an interesting destination in terms of warm weather and interesting wildlife and scenery.

Visitor numbers are also fairly limited in Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and the rest of West Africa, largely as a result of a lack of tourist infrastructure and focused marketing strategy. The only countries in the region to have attracted large numbers of tourists are Gambia and Senegal. Both offer shorter flying times from Western Europe than most other parts of Africa and both have made the most of their colonial heritage by attracting anglophone and francophone tourists respectively.

The two neighbouring states have attractive beaches and are among the most popular African destinations for bird-watching holidays. Visitor numbers to the two countries have fluctuated in line with political stability but a survey by British bank NatWest in 2004, which described Gambia as the most-value-for-money holiday destination for British tourists, helped attract large numbers in 2005. Senegal's southern Casamance region should now benefit from increased tourist numbers as a result of the country's peace deal.

Billionaires' playground

South Africa is also proving to be an attractive destination for very wealthy tourists who have clear ideas of what their ideal holiday should contain and the money to pay for it. There have been several instances of very rich Asian businessmen paying millions of dollars for special birthday or anniversary parties in South Africa. In some instances, entire wildlife parks have been hired, buildings constructed and chefs flown in from all around the world for a single day's celebration.

Such bespoke events are cheaper to organise in South Africa than in most other countries, while the added attraction of elephants and giraffes in the background can swing a deal South Africa's way.

Even more standard facilities are being built in the country to attract the very wealthy. The mayor of Durban, Obed Mlaba, says: "We want to have a six-star hotel catering for the super-rich, so they can come here after they have been to an upmarket game lodge." In Travel & Leisure magazine's annual awards in 2004, five of the 10 'best hotels in the world' were in South Africa, with the Saxon Hotel in Sandton on the edge of Johannesburg gaining top prize for the fourth time. Similar venues are now being used to host large conferences and exhibitions.

For instance, the Young Presidents' Organisation (YPO) has repeatedly chosen South Africa as the venue for its international conference in recent years. The membership of YPO comprises almost 10,000 business leaders from around the world under the age of 50, so such an influx brings a significant amount of investment into the country and also boosts demand for conference facilities and accommodation.

Tourism as empowerment

Last year, South Africa's Tourism Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Charter was launched, setting out sector commitments to increase the proportion of the industry controlled by BEE companies from 6% in 2003 to 20% by 2009 and 35% by 2014.

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The chief director of the department of environmental affairs and tourism, Mahandra Naidoo, commented: "The charter is intended to unlock the creativity, enthusiasm and knowledge of many South Africans who have not been able to productively participate in the industry."

The minister for environmental affairs and tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk (pictured left) said: "For too many decades tourism has been the symbol of everything that was wrong with South Africa. Today we take the single most important step forward since 1994 in addressing that legacy, and ensuring that we break down the walls separating our communities from the benefits of tourism."

He added: "Black empowerment is not about the lowering of standards. It is about giving people access and creating new opportunities and partnerships between black and white, but it can only work if it provides the same quality of service."

The largest BEE currently operating in the sector, Tsogo Sun Holdings, is 51% owned by Tsogo Sun Investments and 49% by brewing firm SABMiller. Its hotels are managed by Southern Sun Hotels, the biggest hotel chain in the southern hemisphere, under the InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn names.

The company's chief executive, Ron Stringfellow, commented: "Unlike some of our competitors who only focus on one segment, we cover the entire sector. The business also owns five casinos including the combined casino and shopping mall, Montecasino.

Stringfellow said: "The casinos are very big business and in fact the gaming part of our business is now even bigger than the hotel part. We get 18m people a year through our five casinos and only 60% go into the casino itself. That's about 7m people who use our facilities but don't enter the casino. People come here for a lot of things other than gambling."

By attracting families, such centres have managed to lure many tourists from other African countries and further afield.

Football tourism

South Africa's success in securing the 2010 FIFA World Cup should also provide a boost to the country's tourist sector on several levels. First, thousands of football fans will be coming to the country from all round the world to see matches, and most will incorporate in a longer holiday in the country. If the South African authorities can persuade some of the fans to bring their families, then the boost to visitor numbers that year will be great indeed.

Secondly, the event will give South Africa a great deal of publicity and the government and tourist authorities are launching a series of public relations exercises to promote the country on the back of such increased foreign interest. In addition, much of the investment required for the World Cup will help to improve tourist infrastructure across the country. New hotels are being built and public transport is being improved, including road and air links between the major cities. The new or revamped stadiums can also be used to host a variety of other events for many years after the event is over.

The 2010 event will be the first time that the World Cup has been held in Africa and it will prove an ideal occasion for many Africans to attend matches. This should provide an additional boost to inter-African tourism.

Another benefit of the World Cup is that it will be held during the South African winter in June and July, providing a boost to visitor numbers in what is traditionally low season for the tourist industry. Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of South Africa's 2010 World Cup organising committee, estimates that the event could boost the South African economy by $6bn and 160,000 jobs; he also predicts that over 400,000 people will visit South Africa as a result of the World Cup.

Minister Mosola says: "We want to leverage the event to spread economic and social benefits, and that includes beyond the borders of South Africa. We want to see sustainable growth, sustainable job creation, and an increase in tourism. We are one of the key areas that can maximise its value during, and hopefully after, the event. This is a fantastic one-off opportunity to broaden South Africa's appeal as a tourist venue, as well as being ambassadors for Africa."

The Indian Ocean islands

Tourism will lead growth in 2006

Mauritius

2006 has been termed the 'year for tourism' in Mauritius, Madagascar and the Seychelles. Of the three, Mauritius' tourism industry is growing the fastest--year on year growth amounting to 16.5% in December 2005 and 18% in January this year. This growth comes after an average annual growth of only 2.9% between 2001 and 2004.

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Mauritius' tourism industry grew by 5.9% in 2005, with 761,000 tourist arrivals earning $860m in foreign exchange and supporting 25,000 jobs. A two-day national conference to fine-tune the island's tourism policies and strategies to consolidate this vital sector of its economy was organised last month [February] in the country's capital, Port-Louis.

Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told delegates that tourism was on track to achieve more than 10% annual growth. "We need it to undo the damage done over the years of lacklustre performance. 2006 will be the year of tourism", he declared.

Tourism has taken on a new importance in Mauritius in the face of the huge challenge posed by the ending of sugar and textile preferential trade agreements.

Ramgoolam told the tourism conference that the island can receive over two million tourists a year, almost three times the number of visitor arrivals in 2005. "That should be our target," he stated, adding that many less-endowed countries were doing much better than Mauritius--both in absolute numbers and in the share of GDP contributed by the tourism sector.

Multi-faceted efforts

The time has come, according to Ramgoolam, for Mauritius to realise the full potential of its industry and make tourism the leading growth sector of the island's economy. To meet that aim, government has announced an eight-point tourism development programme which ranges from the modernisation of the island's physical infrastructure to ensuring the security of visitors. Other initiatives include promoting cultural tourism, the development of eco-tourism projects and offering specialist medical tourism.

Emphasis will also be placed on the preservation of the environment through education and control over the entry of infectious diseases onto the island. New legislation will, if necessary, be introduced.

Seychelles

In Seychelles, an archipelago of 115 islands with natural and more marine parks than anywhere else in the world, visitor arrivals in 2005 reached 130,000 tourists, a 7% increase over 2004 and the first year on year increase since 2002. The island is aiming to attract a record 145,000 tourists this year.

Seychelles Tourism Board's chief executive officer, Sylvestre Radegonde, says that this year the island will be promoted as an affordable destination for all visitors "to counter the general misconception that Seychelles is just a five-star destination for the elite".

He adds that the 22 small hotels on Seychelles with 25 rooms or less will be encouraged to improve their standards so that they could find a place among the best of the best.

Seychelles Tourism Board chairman, Maurice Lousteau-Lalanne, wants to see the visitors spending more time and money and returning to the Seychelles.

With the large number of projects submitted to the Seychelles Investment Bureau (SIB), namely the development of hotels and small establishments, it is expected that by 2008 total employment in the sector will have increased by 80% and the total number of beds by 43%.

Madagascar

In Madagascar, the number of tourist arrivals reached 280,000 in 2005, 50,000 more than in 2004. Around 300,000 arrivals are expected this year.

Tourism is becoming a crucial sector for the island's economy. It brought a record $138m in foreign exchange to the island last year, making the industry one of the country's biggest foreign exchange earners.

In 2005, about 80 hotel establishments with 619 new rooms were created, bringing the number of hotels to 1,011 and the number of rooms to 10,850. Most of them are found around the capital, Antananarivo.

Major tourism players in Madagascar see 2006 as a decisive year for the industry and one of great hope and challenges.

But Aime Tsiazonala Findrama, director of Tourism and Development, says immediate measures should be taken to facilitate investment in the industry as otherwise, he warns, "we will not be able to handle more tourists this year".

For 2007, when the island expects 500,000 arrivals, about 2,000 additional rooms will need to be built. More and more tourists are coming for the many unique fauna and flora found on the giant island. Much of the country remains unexploited by the industry and 'eco-tourism' is becoming a trade-mark for Madagascar, according to Henri Roger, chairman of the National Tourism Office.

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"Our ambition is to ensure that tourists who want to experience something completely different, discover the unique treasures of Madagascar," says Sonja Ranarivelo, director-general of tour operator 'Boogie Pilgrim'.

The hidden face

The tourism industry in Madagascar needs good hotels and roads as more and more foreigners want to travel inland. But the country is facing a new set of problems as the increase in tourism has led to a rise in crime and sexual exploitation.

Neither of these phenomena is entirely new--they have been a problem for some time in the coastal regions of the island. But now the problems are moving inland with the tourists.

Children as young as 10 and 12-years-old are becoming prey to visiting paedophiles, according to officials.

The root cause is poverty, as local press reports have revealed lately. Brightly coloured condoms transformed into balloons, imported sweets and money have all been used to entice children, and sometimes even the parents receive gifts.

But the country is determined to clean up its tourist image by countering this major problem. Hotel and restaurant owners, transport operators, local authorities and community action groups have together launched an association to fight the problem.

The association's general-secretary Razandry Mitoa Florent says tourist sites, particularly the places where sexual tourism flourish, will be watched and policed carefully.

Posters calling for a 'Halt to sexual tourism' and 'Stop paedophilia' are being put up to warn local people and visitors of the intention to stamp out this menace.

Tourism also faces another problem, the irregular supply of electricity. Since May 2005 the power supply has been cut for six to nine hours daily. This makes tourist sites dangerous as thieves take advantage of the periods when the areas are plunged into total darkness.

To help the industry move forward, Henri Roger has called for the creation of a new tourism organisation that will oversee the development of the sector, coordinate all promotions, take initiatives to attract investors and deal with problems and bottlenecks at a ministerial level.

This Special Report was written by Neil Ford with additional reporting by Nasseem Ackbarally.