ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar
Tourist season in Madagascar is reeling from the impact of a strike by Air Madagascar workers that lasted for nearly one month.
The strike, which ended on July 17, crippled the national airline and caused collateral damage across the entire tourism sector.
"The season should have started at the beginning of July. Now, August is coming,” Eric Koller, president of the National Tourism Office in Madagascar, told Anadolu Agency.
Between 60 and 70 percent of the national airline’s flights were canceled, Koller said.
The majority of flights have been grounded for the past month, as striking workers claimed they were fed up with the airline's poor governance and mismanagement.
Most international flights arrive in Antananarivo, the capital.
The tourist attractions they come to visit, however, are almost all in other provinces, which means tourists mostly take further domestic flights when they arrive in Madagascar.
The disruption of flights, both international and domestic, led many tourists to cancel their bookings.
Experts in the sector claim that tourists canceled over 75 percent of their reservations in Sainte Marie Island, leading some hotels to lay off workers.
Related sectors, such as transportation and handicrafts, also suffered from the strike.
"The current priority is to evacuate the tourists already there. Such an operation will further disrupt the arrival of other tourists for another month before returning to normal," Bakomalala Nirinalijao, secretary general of an association of tour operators in Madagascar, told Anadolu Agency.
Madagascar tourism officials planned to take in over 300,000 tourists this year, as the economy relies heavily on tourism.
In 2014, around 220,000 tourists visited the country, according to official statistics.
The government is planning to attract over one million tourists in 2020.
According to official figures, nearly 70 percent of tourists visiting Madagascar are French.
Koller hopes the authorities will revive the tourism sector.
"The government should help us to promote Madagascar... We must prepare an action plan to boost Madagascar [tourism sector]. We must communicate," he said.
The Ministry of Tourism, Transport and Meteorology has not yet made any statement on the strike.
According to Hery Ramiarison, an economist and professor at the University of Antananarivo, the strike at Air Madagascar struck a "hard blow" to the Malagasy economy.
"Tourism is one of the three sectors that provide foreign exchange for the country," he told Anadolu Agency.
In 2013, tourism generated foreign exchange earnings of around €294 million, according to official figures.
"The social movement comes at a crucial moment, at the beginning of tourist season,” he said. “The government did not find a solution rapidly enough.”
"In the future, tourists will be careful. A simple strike rumor could create panic and cancellation of reservations. This is not good for our economy," he said.
