Slow recovery of tourism sector

Up until a year ago, Fort-Dauphin was considered a tourist hotspot among foreign travellers to Madagascar. With resplendent views of verdant hills, lush banana plantations and unspoilt beaches, the tiny southern coastal town attracted thousands of visitors every year. Today, however, hotels that once boasted full occupancy are half empty, beaches remain deserted and local curio shops are struggling to pay the rent. No one, least of all its residents, could have predicted that last year's political crisis - which pitted election winner Marc Ravalomanana against incumbent Didier Ratsiraka - would have such a dramatic and lingering effect on the local economy. "It was as if it happened overnight. One day there were hundreds of tourists everywhere and then when you looked again you couldn't find one. Many foreigners thought their lives would be in danger and so they just left. I think many tourists are still unsure if it is safe to return," one resident told IRIN. Although most of the local population relies on fruit farming and fishing as a means of survival, the well-established tourism industry has been a lifeline for a large number of the town's 60,000 residents. Opened in 1993, Au Bout du Monde (At the bottom of the world) is the biggest curio store in town. The merchandise is a loose collection of what best epitomises Fort-Dauphin: hand-woven baskets, wooden carvings, African masks, and etchings of the local wildlife. "Before the problems we would make on average around 400,000 Malagasy francs (about US $66) a day but now, if we are lucky, we make about 50,000 Malagasy francs (about US $8). It really depends, but business is nothing like it was before," curio shop owner Aureline Razafimdrafamda told IRIN. The more popular Le Dauphine hotel, situated just outside the town centre, has also seen better times. During the nine months of political upheaval, the hotel had to reduce the working hours of its staff. Although business has improved slightly, many of its rooms are unoccupied. For Veronique Razafindrahasy, a waitress at the hotel, the troubles could not have come at a worse time. "I just fell pregnant when all this trouble started. Having to work for just half the month meant that I was not getting enough money. From the little money I got, I had to send my two children to school and buy food. I could not save any money for when the baby came," she said. But while hotel and restaurant owners remain concerned over the downturn in tourism, many of the local traders told IRIN that their business in the area continued to suffer because of the poor condition of the roads linking the town to the capital, Antananarivo. Forty-two-year-old Filbertine Razanadrasoa runs a clothing stall in the town's largest open-air market. Every month she travels to Antananarivo to buy fabric and additional stock. "It takes almost three days just to get from Fort-Dauphine to Antananarivo by bus. The journey is tiring and very expensive. Because my children are at school I don't have anyone to look after the stall when I am away. This means that I have to close the shop for three days. That is three days of lost business," she said. Road rehabilitation has featured high on the list of priorities of the new government. And while there are signs of improvement, mainly in the capital city, very little has been done in the rural areas. "We hope that President Ravalomanana does not just end up looking after the people in Antananarivo. We, too, supported him during the elections," Razanadrasoa said. "The government should fix the roads not only for the Malagasy people, but also for tourists who want to travel across the island," she added. "Many people have complained that the air ticket from Tana [Antananarivo] to Fort-Dauphine is too expensive. If we had better roads there would be more people visiting, which means more money for many more people."