Patrick Lebreton, President of Reunion Island Tourism, did not hide his satisfaction by presenting the provisional figures for attendance on the island in 2023.
556,089 external visitors were counted in 2023, an increase of 12% compared to 2022. The 2019 record is broken : Reunion Island had never seen such attendance. Revenues generated by foreign arrivals also break a record, around 478 million euros (+14% compared to 2022). Patrick Lebreton also insisted on the need to orient Reunion tourism in the direction of sustainability, to respond to changes in traveler demand, while targeting local tourism, effective crisis absorber. According to the IRT, trends for the first half of 2024 confirm the improvement, with bookings up 10% compared to the previous year. 2024 will also be the year of rapprochement between the IRT and the Réunion Tourism Federation, which will become one in 2025, probably under a new name.
