Reunion continues to lose ground on its neighbors
June 10by
From September 3, Emirates will operate four flights per week between its hub in Dubai, Antananarivo in Madagascar and Mahé in the Seychelles. Our two neighbors thus join Mauritius which has been served for several years by a daily Emirates Airbus A380 flight.
Madagascar and the Seychelles will thus be connected to the largest hub in the world in terms of passengers. It will also be a direct line to one of the regions of the world with the strongest purchasing power. This is therefore a great opportunity for exporters of agricultural products from Madagascar.
Tourism is taking off again except in Reunion
Emirates in Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and not Reunion.
This is the consequence of a policy of integration with France which does not allow our island to participate in this dynamic.
It is in fact Paris which decides who can or cannot enter Reunion.
Indeed, in Reunion Island, any European Union national can enter with a simple identity card and without having to provide proof of a return ticket.
The benefits of this policy are very limited for tourism. It remains largely affinity. Europeans live on a continent in the midst of a crisis with effects on the choice of destinations. Inflation has greatly reduced purchasing power. European tourists can easily find a destination with lower airfare and lower cost of living. The comparative tourism figures recently released by the IEDOM confirm this. Last year, all countries in our region experienced a significant increase in the number of tourists, not Reunion Island.
What is the interest for Emirates in serving Reunion Island?
If a company like Emirates decides to settle in a country, it is because it believes that the reception conditions are met for its passengers with high purchasing power transiting through Dubai, with services up to par to begin with. by reception.
These conditions are not met in Reunion, because these passengers with high purchasing power come from all over the world, and not just from the European Union. They are forced to submit to the visa policy imposed by Paris on Reunion Island. There is therefore no question for them of buying a visa at the airport by declaring an address and showing the return ticket as is the case in Madagascar or Mauritius.
These tourists must apply for a visa at a French Consulate. They must not only provide an address, but also prove that they are in possession of a minimum sum of money calculated according to the length of stay. They must also provide proof that they have paid for insurance covering medical costs and repatriation. It is then the Consulate which accepts or not the request. Refusals are not rare and often for no other reason than “lack of guarantees”, the costs incurred are not reimbursed.
If the visa is obtained, the police officer checking visas at the airport has the right to demand that the tourist count the money in his possession in front of him.
Obstacle course to obtain a tourist visa
This visa policy maintains suspicion towards non-European tourists. These steps are a real obstacle course. It is therefore not surprising that thousands of rich tourists prefer to spend their money in Madagascar and Mauritius rather than in Reunion, whatever the tourist attractions of our island.
This deprives Reunion Island of many tourists with high purchasing power and the thousands of jobs that go with it. This limits Reunion Island to a single source, Europe in decline. Is the aim of such a policy the development of Reunion or its maintenance dependent on public transfers?
M.M.
