International travellers have always been attracted to Madagascar by its wealth of natural resources (fauna, flora, geomorphology, climate) and cultural resources. Tourism in Madagascar has been constantly growing over the last twenty years with an annual increase of 11.4%. Madagascar is increasingly positioning itself as a prime eco-tourism destination. This strategic move, made by the government and private operators at the end of the 90s, has lead, on the one hand, to a re-organization of the tourist product and a re-definition of related promotional activites and, on the other, to the rapid development of an eco-tourism customer base from new generating markets such as Japan, Australia and North America.

In the field of information and comunications technologies (ICTs), Madagascar is currently showing a keen interest, with in particular a firm willingness on the part of the government to draw up an ambitious national policy with the goal of integrating the country in the global information society by 2010. It is in this context that we are investigating the future of e-tourism in Madagascar and, in particular, the probability of a destination management system for Madagascar being set up. (For more information see: Madagascar case study).