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| The Atsimo Andrefana and Anôsy regions rely heavily on air connections to develop their tourism. |
The company Madagascar Airlines announces three direct flights between Toliara and Tolagnaro for this month of August, in order to meet the exponential needs of vacationers.
It was time. Flights resume between Toliara and Tolagnaro and will be operated on board Madagascar Airlines aircraft. Even if it is not yet a recovery to last the whole year, at least for this month of August, three flights are announced. The 15th, 23rd and 25th of this month will be open to connections between the Atsimo-Andrefana region and the Anôsy region. “A great breath of fresh air for vacationers and tourists and also for us,” exclaims a hotel operator in Toliara. “This will cost us less and the journey will be shorter and more comfortable,” wrote us a family based in Ampasikabo Tolagnaro who frequently travels to Toliara for business.
Foreign tourists from Mauritius and Reunion Island take circuits in the South, looping around the tourist sites of Ampasy Nahampoana, Libanona and Tolagnaro to reach the beaches of Anakao and Nosy Ve in the Atsimo-Andrefana region. Since last April, the Air Austral company has stopped its flights connecting Reunion Island, Tolagnaro and Toliara. Passengers wanting to reach the towns of Tolagnaro in Toliara are obliged to go through Antananarivo, then buy new tickets to both destinations. The total cost of all these trips can reach four million ariary and even more when there was not enough fleet at the beginning of this year.
Bumpy
For the next flights offered, the national airline’s reservation simulator, for example, offers 179 euros, or nearly 895,000 ariary, for a ticket leaving from Tolagnaro to Toliara on August 15. The price decreases to 134 euros, or nearly 670,000 ariary, for a departure on August 25, provided that reservations are made in the coming days. Prices which may very well change depending on the number of passengers and departure days. At least for this month of August, vacationers, travelers and tourists are supported by these “relief flights”.
The alternative of taking the road costs time and comfort. Renting an all-terrain vehicle from Toliara, among others, is 200,000 ariary per day on average, fuel extra. A stop at Ampanihy is more reassuring and a second stop at Beloha Androy, three days to connect the approximately 436 km. For adventure enthusiasts, trips by bush taxi trucks cost in the range of 200,000 ariary, and the journey lasts three days and sometimes four.
“It is time to reorganize the transport system in general in the South. It is a large area which interests vacationers and tourists but who find themselves demotivated given the state of the slopes and especially the existing means of transport,” suggests Voahangy R., travel agent. Many, however, are waiting for the resumption of the Toliara-Morondava connections, whose journey of some 400 km is handicapped by the bumpy road between Manja and Morondava. As well as Morondava-Maintirano-Mahajanga.
Mirana Ihariliva