Madagascar sees growing number of int'l tourists

ANTANANARIVO, March 12 (Xinhua) -- In the first two months of 2024, Madagascar welcomed a total of 22,333 international tourists compared with 19,348 in the same period last year, according to data released Tuesday by the Ministry of Tourism and Handicrafts.

This increase shows an "encouraging" recovery of the Malagasy tourism sector, although the figures are still below the levels recorded in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, when 25,068 international visitors set foot in Madagascar during the same period, said the ministry.

However, to effectively revive the sector, further efforts are needed to reach the ambitious target of 400,000 tourists by the end of the year. According to the Madagascar Tourism Confederation, this will involve stepping up domestic air services, which are suffering from a lack of aircraft to meet the current high tourist demand, as well as rehabilitating road infrastructure and access routes to tourist areas.

The ministry also highlighted a boom and a "particularly encouraging trend" in domestic tourism. The data show that in 2020, the number of domestic visitors was 12,018; this number doubled the following year, reaching 46,965 in 2022, and then increased again to 63,897 in 2023.