New partners join Ile de La Reunion Tourism

The Reunion Tourism Office central reservation department welcomed yesterday new service providers to their extensive list of existing partners, affirming that tourism remains a growth sector on this French Indian Ocean island.

New are the Villa Ote, a colonial style guest house situated in the Entre-Deux. Three bedrooms open onto a living library where a reading area and a coffee corner is available to visitors. Vacationers can enjoy breakfast served outside on the terrace on the ground level or in the exotic garden of the house. Villa Ote also offers a table d'hôte evening meal which gives guests the opportunity to enjoy a tasty and creative cuisine, home-cooking style. Ote The Villa has an infinity pool and a spa, offering hikers relaxing excursion parties on the many trails in the village.

Also new is the Domaine de Cafe Grille located in Saint-Pierre which offers guided tours of the botanical garden. This location takes visitors back in time to trace the history of the great culture that has made La Reunion. At the heart of a garden of four acres, visitors will discover shrubs rich in colors that bloom extensively throughout the year. With flowering vines, bamboo, and palms, walkers will appreciate the biodiversity which can be found there. For those peckish or outright hungry, the Domaine de Cafe Grille offers tasty local dishes and, of course, coffee and croissants.

Reunion, one of France’s regions in the Indian Ocean – Mayotte is the other one – has, over the past years, made determined efforts to move its tourism industry away from the past nearly total reliance of the French domestic market, from where home airline Air Austral connects 12 times a week from Charles De Gaulle in Paris to the island’s main airport Roland Garros in the capital St. Denis. Agreements with South Africa for a Visa Waiver Program have born fruits and seen visitor numbers from there increase in leaps and bounds and a similar deal is in the making now for China and reportedly some other countries, too.

Reunion’s attractions, from the sandy beaches to the rugged interior and active volcano Piton de la Fournaise, can be accessed via www.reunion.fr and the various links to service providers found there.