Open Letter To Tourists: Promoting Ecotourism for Cultural Reasons

Dear Tourists,

It is a pleasure for me to send you this letter. As a minister of
culture and tourism it is my duty to send you this letter in order to
inform you that your visit here can hurt Malagasy culture because the
majority of Malagasy people tend to imitate your culture. For example
your way of life and your style of dress can risk our cultural ways
and dress.

But, we still need you because tourism improves our economy, our
infrastructure and our education. All of these things are improved
because of tourism. The money we earn from tourism contributes to the
development of our country and therefore tourism is one of the sources
of our development.

To avoid the loss of our culture, we encourage you to choose
ecotourism because it is a voyage into a natural area with the purpose
of appreciating nature—for example the fauna and flora which are found
that hat area. Ecotourism is also a voyage into appreciating the
cultural events of the local people. Ecotourism is good for our
environment and culture because it contributes to the conservation of
both the environment and the local culture.

I hope that you will make a good choice and help us keep our culture
for a long time.

Sincerely Yours,

Andris