Dollar signs are swirling before the eyes of Malagasy tourism officials as the release date nears for Hollywood’s new cartoon feature Madagascar, a film that is hoped will send holidaymakers trooping to this Indian Ocean island.
The family-oriented, computer-generated comedy from animation giant DreamWorks, the maker of earlier hits Shrek and A Shark’s Tale, premieres nationwide in the United States on May 27, a date officials in Madagascar believe will mark the opening of a whole new tourism market at no cost.
”This film is an incredible chance for Madagascar,” said Henri Roger, president of the Tourism Board of Madagascar, which has relied mainly on expensive advertising campaigns to attract visitors to the island’s rainforests and beaches.
In France, also a source of tourists for Madagascar, the film opens on June 22.
”This cartoon will be watched by tens of thousands of people around the world,” Roger said. ”It will highlight Madagascar and influence their destination choice in the coming years.”
Voiced by silver screen and television stars Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith, Madagascar recounts the misadventures of a lion and his zebra, giraffe and hippo friends at New York’s Central Park Zoo.
When the curious zebra escapes with the help of a band of penguins, his compatriots go after him but, end up being captured crated and put on a ship to Africa to be freed.
When the penguins sabotage the ship, the four pals find themselves washed ashore on Madagascar, where in the words of the film’s publicists, ”these native New Yorkers have to figure out how to survive in the wild and discover the true meaning of the phrase ‘It’s a jungle out there’.”
In a statement released on Tuesday, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said the company hopes to overcome disappointing first-quarter 2005 earnings with Madagascar, which he said the firm is ”especially excited about”.
”Reaction to the movie so far has been very encouraging and we think there is something in it for the entire family to enjoy,” he said.
In Madagascar, which is better known for its exotic lemurs, rare lizards and vibrant music than for talking animated animals, officials see box-office success for the film translating into much-needed tourism revenue.
In conjunction with national flag-carrier Air Madagascar and the National Federation of Hoteliers and Restaurateurs, the tourism board is organising trips for journalists and tour operators based around the film, Roger said.
The excursions will fit in with measures the francophone country has taken over the past year to increase visits from perennial tourism leaders France and Belgium, where Madagascar opens on June 22, and expand that base, he said.
The island, which recorded a 35% increase in tourists between 2001 and 2004, from 230 000 to 310 000 foreign visitors, is currently on a campaign to boost that number to 500 000 by 2007.
As part of that drive, the government is working with investors to build an additional 500 hotel rooms per year on the island, which now has a 9 300-rooom capacity. — Sapa-AFP