Ecotourism in Madagascar - Responsible Tourism: Critical Issues for Conservation and Development - page 36

• implementing a new department especially for ecotourism development

inside the new Ministry; and

• minimizing administrative complexity and improving communication

channels.

Of especial importance is supporting and strengthening the Ministry of
Environment, Water and Forest and Tourism for its new requirements and tasks
by all stakeholders. It is vital that this institution takes the lead in ecotourism
development and that it coordinates and streamlines the various efforts of the
public-private-donor sector into one programme, following one action plan to
bring the MAP's vision into effect (harmonization efforts on national, regional
and local level). The necessary activities should be implemented as soon as possi-
ble and well communicated to the administrative institutions at the regional level.
The latter should be better trained and forced finally to take over their roles and
responsibilities to the extent that the private sector can concentrate and push their
businesses forward.
As financial means for destination marketing and promotion are very
limited, and the competition on the international tourism market is high,
Madagascar does not get the attention it should, taking into account the variety
of activities and the nearly pristine destination it offers. This is mainly due to a
lack of proper branding and image creation for Madagascar as a tourism destina-
tion and the virtually nonexistent marketing and promotional activities. As the
tourism tax, the financial resource of the tourism board, is followed up more
closely now by the Malagasy Tourism Board, it will provide more income, result-
ing in improved and more professional efforts on the international, regional and
local levels (e.g. trade fairs). The country's USPs must now be developed,
especially at the regional level, along with enhanced promotion of the regions by
their Regional Tourism Boards.

Why has tourism development not increased living
standards for the local population in one of the most
underdeveloped countries in the world?
In addition to the points already mentioned, there has not been enough govern-
ment effort yet to improve the investment climate and conditions for investors to
make tourism a lead sector and convince international investors in particular to
set up business in Madagascar. One can see that with the push coming from the
MAP launch, the activities of the government will start to bring results, but it is
not yet enough to draw investors away from other countries where there are better
conditions and greater investment security. This situation could be improved by:

• giving special incentives for tourism development (e.g. reduced taxes for the

construction of proper ecolodges, recuperation of products/materials
minimizing the use of natural resources (e.g. renewable energies) or the
implementation of ecotourism products following international standards;