MAYOTTE’S NEW AIRPORT TERMINAL GETS PRESIDENTIAL NOD OF APPROVAL
(Posted 25th August 2014)
Mayotte, France’s second region in the Indian Ocean, has been a founder member of the Vanilla Island Organization but is unlike Reunion, which has pulled out all stops to promote herself as a global tourism destination, lacked such a drive and is relying almost entirely on visitors from the French mainland for tourism purposes.
The formal opening of a new airport terminal however by President Hollande, who arrived on Mayotte as part of his tour of the French Indian Ocean regions, might change that. The new airport terminal can handle up to 600.000 passengers per year and having been built as a modular concept can eventually be expanded to double that number.
While already in operation for the past three months was the formal opening and tape cutting set to coincide with the visit of the President of the Republic of France.
While the island receives marketing exposure through the Vanilla Island Organization, direct marketing on a global scale, similar to the efforts of Reunion, Seychelles or Madagascar for instance, are hardly evident as yet though the two websites of Mayotte Tourism give some insight into the destination: http://en.ilemayotte.com/ or else click on http://www.mayotte-tourisme.com/index.php/en/
Only 52.000 visitors arrived on the island in 2013of which a mere one fifth fitted the description of being leisure tourists, the first such increase however after a decline in arrivals since 2011. The highest segment of visitors falls into the category of VFR – Visiting Friends and Relatives with most, nearly 60 percent, coming from the French homeland while visitors from Reunion account for nearly 40 percent of those. These visits, according to data at hand, generated some 29 million US Dollars in revenues, clearly showing the potential for growth which could in turn attract more investments in the hospitality and general tourism sectors. Main airlines flying to Mayotte are Reunion’s Air Austral and Kenya Airways from Nairobi which links into their own flights and those by partners KLM / Air France from Paris.
