Located in the Indian Ocean, north of the Mozambique Channel and northeast of Madagascar, Comoros is a small archipelago of four islands and 1.07 million inhabitants.
The authorities want to make it a flagship tourist destination in the region, relying in particular on the quality of its beaches, its lagoons and its karthala whose crater is the largest volcano in the world. This is the path mapped out by President Azali Assoumani's Emergence Plan 2030, in which tourism is considered a catalyst.
The road ahead, however, could be long. Indeed, Comoros is one of the few sovereign island economies whose growth prospects remain very low, around 2.4%. It should be remembered that the island was heavily burdened by Cyclone Kenneth between 2017 and 2019.
While the record number of tourist arrivals was 45,100 foreign visitors for 64.94 million euros in revenue in 2019, only 7,000 tourists set foot on Comorian soil for about 16.2 million euros in 2020.
Last May, Comoros hosted the eighth conference on responsible and sustainable tourism, demonstrating their desire to make a specific mark on the large regional market.