The Island and the plane: from the technical constraint to the economic choices of the tourist islands of the indian océan (Reunion Island, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives)
Résumé
Air transport has become determining in the international opening of island territories remote from outgoing tourism markets. Air transport so became a tool of opening more or less strongly appropriated by States and island possessions, and which they more or less put in the service of the tourism development. The improvement of accessibility allowed the apparition of new destinations and we notice, during their stake in tourism, similarities concerning the policies organized by States. But we observe today among the flows of passengers varying degrees of international tourists and of travels of the islanders. To these issues is added the question of the strategies of airline companies in a context of globalization of their model and aggravated competition. The proposed analysis of the studied spaces (Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius and Reunion Island) allows to put the milestones of a typology of the links between air access and tourism and propose three types of destinations which tourism performances and strategies are different.