Ecotourism in Madagascar - Responsible Tourism: Critical Issues for Conservation and Development - page 32

problem is that there has been no decentralization of ecotourism education and
training to the different Malagasy districts as currently most of the activities and
schools are located in the capital. For many students the costs to cover education
and living in the capital or abroad are too high. A starting point would be the
establishment of tourism institutions in each of the country's districts and a
proper programme to train instructors.
The training of tourism guides is normally handled by the national park
authority ANGAP. A three-month training course is given to paying students,
combined with field work in one of the National Parks. Nevertheless, this is basic
training and the majority of guides are learning on the job or undertaking self-
study courses in languages. At the beginning of 2007 the Chamber of Commerce
established a one-year dual training course for local guides (50 per cent theory, 50
per cent practice) following a highly respected education pattern in Germany. If
this new course is successfully received by the students and the private sector, it
will be further implemented in Chambers of Commerce in the provinces.
The recent introduction of English as the third official language, after
Malagasy and French, by the Malagasy government is an attempt to open the
country up to the international community. The government is also starting green
education in primary schools to raise awareness of environmental issues among
children and their families.
Government support of the investment climate and
conditions for tourism development
Although there has been increasing public demand to improve the investment
climate, there has been little active support from the government. Activities have
been more or less driven by donor institutions who have tried to facilitate and
guarantee investments for the country (e.g. USAID with BAMEX, Agence
Français de Développement (AFD), World Bank/IFC). Although the current
government has been trying to accelerate tourism development, it is still
hampered by a difficult investment climate and investment conditions. Investors
are hindered from providing money because of a lack of basic requirements
including: land ownership and land issues, investment procedures, the necessary
documents being in place, contact people, land speculation in attractive tourism
areas, the slow implementation of government decisions, a low level of coordina-
tion between the private and public sector and inside governmental bodies, and
interest rates which are far too high for national investors to get involved in this
business. Special incentives or tax reductions for tourism development and for the
construction of proper ecolodges, the recuperation of products and materials and
minimizing the use of natural resources, using renewable energies or the imple-
mentation of ecotourism products following international standards are not given
and it seems that they will not be given until 2009 prior to the demands of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its country strategy.
It is no surprise that in the latest Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report
(Blanke and Chiesa, 2008) Madagascar was placed 118 out of the 130 countries