French Caribbean Island Gives Atlantans a Taste of Martinique

The Caribbean island of Martinique is eyeing more travelers from Atlanta, despite the fact that a nonstop flight to the French territory remains elusive.

La Martinique, which enjoys equal political status to a department on France’s mainland, sent tourism representatives to the city to charm the travel trade with culinary delights (with disclaimers the limited availability of authentic spices), signature cocktails and presentations on the island’s many attractions March 13.

“Anything you find in France, you will find in Martinique,” said Monique Macaire, head of marketing, administration, cruise and water sports at Martinique Tourism Authority, praising the island’s infrastructure and shopping options for travelers.

The Atlanta Botanical Garden served as the setting for the “Isle of Flowers” to tell its story of natural beauty, from hundreds of hiking trails to Mont Pelee in the north, the volcano that recently landed UNESCO World Heritage status.

Since its beaches and outdoor activities, from parasailing and surfing to scuba diving, are well-known, the officials aimed instead to give visitors a feel for the island’s blend of French, indigenous and West African culture, initiating a call-and-response exercise in creole and playing up its heritage for tour groups interested in the history of slavery in the Americas.

Sites to visit include Le Savane des Esclaves, a village dedicated to showing the lifestyles of the indigenous and slave populations of yesteryear, an arresting memorial by Anse Cafard commemorating 40 slaves who drowned in a shipwreck, and the An Mao memorial to the runaway slaves of Martinique.

The event was sponsored by the Toni Morrison Society, which led the installation of a memorial bench in the city of Fort de France, the capital of Martinique, in honor of writer, Surrealist poet and politician Aimé Césaire, who fought for the rights of Black people in formerly colonized states and served as the longtime mayor of the Martinique capital. Mr. Césaire died in 2008, and the bench was installed in 2013, six years before Ms. Morrison, the Black American literary icon, passed away.

Martinique is also known as a key home of rhum agricole, rum made from fresh-pressed sugar cane juice rather than the molasses used by distilleries for most common rums, with the quality controlled by the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée, or AOC, since 1996. Martinique has many distilleries, offering visitors a chance to tour and sample the complexity of its varieties, which, like many Caribbean islands, it claims as the best in the world.

Ms. Macaire urged visitors to sample fair from every corner of the island.

“Whether it’s the roadside or expensive restaurants, the food will be the same because this is in us. It’s in our DNA to cook well,” Ms. Macaire said.

She also showcased ways to engage with the legacies of influential cultural figures like Mr. Cesaire, Martinican Director Euzhan Palcy and anticolonist writer Frantz Fanon.

All these charms are currently reachable via a one-stop flight through Miami three times a week, though Martinique’s tourism board would love to see the return of the Delta Air Lines nonstop from Atlanta that began operation in December 2006 but was later paused after Hurricane Dean destroyed many of the island’s crops and delayed an airport opening in 2007. By 2008, the global financial crisis was under way, and the flight had been suspended altogether, as Martinique continued to try to lure North American travelers to an island better known to Europeans.

“It’s only with your help that we will make it happen,” Ms. Macaire said of an Atlanta flight to applause and affirmations from the audience.

There is precedent for such a return: Delta recently relaunched a flight to Curaçao and announced that it would restart nonstop service from Atlanta to Barbados this November.

Muriel Wiltord, the longtime director of tourism for the Americas based in New York and a frequent visitor to Atlanta when the previous flight was inaugurated nearly two decades ago, was also on hand for the March event.