REUNION TOURISM MARKETERS AIM TO CASH IN ON SUDDEN GLOBAL FAME
(Posted 03rd August 2015)
Vanilla Islands founder member La Reunion, until now a destination for connoisseurs, has over the past week risen to global fame. It was however not the third eruption of the Piton de la Fournaise this year, spectacular as it is, which brought the island into the headlines and saw the global news network crews engage in a race to secure seats on Air Austral to fly to this French Indian Ocean island. Neither was it the fifth anniversary of much of the interior of the island being declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, though the better networks, not those of the ‘Hotbed of Error’ type, are expected to feature those tourism attractions too while on Reunion.
It was debris which washed up on the Eastern shores of the island, first part of a wing, then a suitcase and now other aircraft parts which brought the world’s attention on to Reunion.
Speculation is rife if the fragments of an aircraft are indeed of missing flight MH 370 and aviation experts, and in many cases pseudo experts are now given airtime to fuel the latest global craze about what might have happened to that missing flight, which has defied over one and a half years of search efforts.
Reunion’s tourism marketers though do not mind at all being featured, free of cost that is, on the global television channels and making headlines in the daily newspapers, as it raises the island’s profile as a destination overlooked by many until now and largely known to specialists in adventure travel only.
Viewers, if given the hoped for background of the island, will no doubt be thrilled about the range of adventure activities, besides the conventional beach vacations, Reunion offers to visitors. Mountain biking, hiking, abseiling, white water rafting and paragliding are just a few of the attractions which await tourists and with the whale watching season just opening spectacular sightings can be expected when venturing out to sea.
Reunion over the past three years introduced Visa waivers for South Africa, India and China, which have already supported an increase in visitor numbers from those countries. Aviation buffs from countries other than the European Union, the US, Canada and a few other countries exempted from Visa requirements for the EU – Reunion as part of France is of course part of Europe no matter the tropical location – will no doubt now rush to secure their entry documents if they are intent to travel to the island and walk the beaches, along with hundreds of locals, in search of bits and pieces washed up. No matter though why they will travel to Reunion, it will no doubt be a rewarding visit to an island much written about here but yet to make it into the big league of global tourism destinations. For added destination information click on www.reunion.fr
