La Reunion, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, and Seychelles have all already confirmed their participation at the coming Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands working meeting taking place in La Reunion on August 22 and 23 and it is believed that Comoros will also be confirming their arrival in La Reunion for that important meeting.

This will be the first meeting since the island grouping became a fully-fledged organization in July at the Minister’s Meeting held in Seychelles, which saw Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture take up the position of the First President of the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands.

The agenda for the La Reunion meeting will have a three-pronged approach to the workings of the island grouping.

- Consolidate the visibility of the Vanilla islands as a tourism region in its own right.

- Reinforce the structures of the individual island’s tourism authority.

- Plan common marketing and sales plans with emphasis on twin center approaches.

The La Reunion meeting will also spend time for budgetary allocations for the three-pronged actions by the island grouping where it is estimated a budget of some euro 300,000.00 will be allocated as the initial budget.

Delegates from the different islands will be meeting for their two-day meeting at Hotel Lux at St. Gilles in La Reunion and a press conference is set to be held at the end of the second day’s session.