Moroni — Comoros could become the new fashionable destination of the Indian Ocean, but the country's tourism potential is still largely untapped. To leverage its exceptional assets, Comoros needs to develop and implement an integrated tourism strategy, insisted Priscilla Lecomte, an economist at ECA in East Africa.

The debate on tourism development in Comoros took place during the launch of the Comoros profile published by ECA, during the meeting on catalysts and constraints to transformative growth in Eastern Africa, held this week in Moroni. National experts insisted on the opportunities related to the diaspora, which account for more than 50% of international visitors.

The profile focuses on recent economic and social developments in the country. In terms of economic performance, growth has picked up and should reach 3% in 2017, thanks to investments in infrastructure and electricity supply. Nevertheless, growth remains lower than the average for countries of the region, and below the target of 6.1% set by the government's Strategy for Accelerated Growth and Sustainable Development (SCA2D) for the period 2015 - 2019. One of the reasons for the subdued growth is the relative weakness of the productive sector, related to the fact that Comoros is a Small Island Developing State.

More positively, income poverty has declined from 45% to 34% of the population between 2004 and 2014. Disparities persist, however, and poverty levels remain higher in rural areas. Comoros currently ranks 160th out of 188 in the Human Development Index.

To address these challenges, tourism has been identified as one of the sectors that could drive growth and contribute to poverty reduction.

Profile 2017 - Les Comores

For more information, please contact:

M. Didier Habimana, habimanad@un.org (Français ; Anglais)

Priscilla Lecomte, lecomte@un.org (Français ; Anglais, Swahili)