Government has warned unscrupulous tour operators who are allegedly misleading tourists and the general public that government has exorbitantly hiked visa fees.
Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources Minister, Michael Kaingu says it is unfortunate that the recent adjustment of visa fees has been deliberately misconstrued to frustrate tourism promotion.
Mr. Kaingu has clarified that visa fees for single entry have been adjusted from US$25 to US$50, while multi-entry visa fees have been hiked from US$40 to US$80.
He said any other figures are incorrect and a misrepresentation of the adjustment announced by government.
Mr Kaingu parried off fears that the upward adjust of visa fees would adversely affect the inflow of tourists into the country.
He said his office has so far not received evidence indicating that the flow of tourists has reduced because of the adjustment in visa fees.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kaingu says the post election violence in Kenya could have impacted negatively on Kenya’s tourism industry and that of neighboring countries.
Mr. Kaingu explained that war and conflicts have a bearing on tourism as tourists are scared to visit countries where they are likely to be caught up in conflicts.
He noted that conflicts should not be encouraged in any country as its consequences on the economy are disastrous.
Mr. Kaingu however said that Zambia’s tourism sector was not affected with the violence in Kenya adding that its likely that some tourists from Kenya may have come to Zambia because of the conflicts in Kenya.
And Government has warned that it will would impound trucks found loaded with charcoal which have not been issued with licenses.
Mr. Kaingu noted that charcoal trading has increased by more than 70 percent due to the power outages which the country has been faced with forcing people to use charcoal adding that this has led to some traders to engage in illegal tree cutting.
He added that the increase in exports of charcoal has also contributed to the vice as people are forced to cut down tree illegally to produce more for exporting.
Mr. Kaingu noted that the vice has caused deforestation in the country as trees are cut down almost on a daily basis.
He explained that people wanting to engage in cutting down tree for domestic use should acquire licenses from the forestry department.
Visitor VISA should be made free in order to encourage and boost the tourism industry. Zambia is not that special YET. In order to encourage more tourism, we should make our visiting VISA free.
Tell me Why the Zambian goverment can not hike the visa fee to $131 like the USA embassy? If poor people can pay that non-refundable fee, I bet tourist would pay the visa application fees . Just learn how to advertise the Zambian assets positively.
Visa fee would never stop foreigners to visit your country, the more cheap you come out, the more tourist think your country is useless.
Put a price on your assets, do not undermine your own country. If you think Zambia is very poor, then you have not seen other poor countries like luthiania, Indonesia, Mexico and many more.
Viva new visa fees, that is one good way that Zambia can gain but I just hope that the new revenue coming in won’t be abused through corruption. Gov’t can use the gains to improve infrastructure and offer upstart up loans to those Zambians thinking of going into the tourism business.
General Tembo should not even waste his time contemplating on other parties but the party he helped find.
MMD is the only party that offers hope, says Mwaanga
By Patson Chilemba
Sunday March 09, 2008
VETERAN politician Vernon Mwaanga has said MMD is the only party that offers hope for the future.
And Mwaanga has urged Lieutenant General Christon Tembo to join the MMD, should he decide to get back into active politics.
In an interview after he renewed his MMD membership last Friday, Mwaanga said unlike other parties, MMD had a broader and articulate vision for the country.
Mwaanga said MMD had a national charecter as opposed to the other parties that were regional in nature.
He said
He said the MMD would remain a force to reckon with in the many years to come.
On the party’s by-election loss in Kanyama, Mwaanga said the secretariat should not be blamed for the loss. He said people should be mindful that MMD was trying to wrestle the seat from the Patriotic Front. Mwaanga said the party would have been worried if it failed to retain one of the seats it currently held.
Mwaanga further commended the government for introducing the new mining tax regime. He urged the government to stand firm on the tax regime, saying this was an issue the Zambian people were agreed upon.
He urged mining companies to realise that they were partners in development. Mwaanga said partnership
He urged mining companies to realise that they were partners in development. Mwaanga said partnership entailed equitable sharing of resources.
And Mwaanga said the MMD constitution provided for members who had retired to return to the party.
Mwaanga said MMD was the only realistic party that Lt Gen Tembo could join.
“I think that Gen Tembo knows MMD. He knows the strengths of the party and he dealt with those strengths. He served the party as vice-president.
He’s a founder member of MMD after all. So it will be a home coming for him,” said Mwaanga.
Is Kaingu saying that the visa fees have been dropped for Brits and Americans and put in line with everyone else? Who is misleading who?
what is fundraising and what about passport. please dont increase the amount ok. if you do so we shall meet in the general elections
Sata’s remarks about women were one of the most unfortunate verbature this serpent has spat this year. Sometimes one if left to wonder what that Doctor Kaseba is doing with a completely useless SOB like Sata, it must be complete desperation of the groinery nature for a well established medical practitioner like her to cohabit with a skunk of the worst order like Sata. For him, he may as well have just fallen from the bollocks of that Nwacusa Satana-Mukulu who cale from Mbeya, climbed a high tree and abra cadabra, raahh, off his stinking machende dropped Sata-Wamwana who landed his gurumutu head on an ant hill and entered masalamusi inside his head.
Vernon Mwaanga shout just shut up and not encourage slumbering and idle soldiers like Tembo to awake from their slumber and start another fruitless bout quest for power. If he wants to coil out of his Levy induced retirement, and his praise for the MMD indicates so, he should just do it and not try to drag the old Chap into his misguided political acrobatics synonymous with the likes of his uncle Mr. Daniel Runyoka Mukombwe.
Have Dignity for your country.We have so much to offer in tourism.Stand and be firm about the visa fees,whether high ,we will still have tourists in this country.Its not a matter of comparison with the US and UK.This countries are rich already we might as well benefit from them and the rest of the world.As someone pointed out,we are considered poor though we still pay fees that are ridiculously high and non refundable for that matter.Kwena yeh!Thats why they say the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer.Wake up and think about how much Zambia is worth.Lori Cole (USA)
Ladies and gentlemen, US$80 nothing to any European tourist and its about time some fools stopped cheating people that this move will impact negatively on the flow of tourists to this country. Just because this fee is nearer to Zambia’s average monthly income does not mean its high, actually it should be aligned in reciprocity, it we’re charged US$1000 to enter the US or whatever country, lets fix our fees at the same level. An eye should be for an eye, its about time we valued what we have to offer accordingly instead of crying for fair play when we cannot be fair to ourselves.
Why don’t you just make it $200.ther’s nothing wrong with hiking fees and I mean it happens everywher else in the world.those that don’t want o come let them stay!we pay so dearly for going UK and US.
Botswana and Namibia do not have visa restrictions, we can do away with ours.We can welcome rich countires to Zambia, as long as we provide tight security in the country. Visa money only goes to ZRA coffers. Other developed countries have visa restrictions due to security reasons for the country. That way the can stop any individual presenting themselves at their gate deemed as enemy or from an enemy country/region. Zambia has no such countries, touch wood, we never fight wars or get involved in terror attacks, we could have tight boarder controls, but can do away with VISAs.
I come to power, mmd would be banned for abusing citizens of Zambia, stealing our resources, defrauding Zambians at elections, and most of all, allocating funds for a person’s health called LPM. LPM’s health must be treated like any other citizens’ and not as a special case. This is unconstitutional and criminal.
All entry visas for anybody must be based on reciprocal arrangements. If the US charge us x amount, we will also charge x amount for their citizens to enter Zambia.
I come to power, mmd would be banned for abusing citizens of Zambia, stealing our resources, defrauding Zambians at elections, and most of all, allocating funds for a person’s health called LPM. LPM’s health must be treated like any other citizens’ and not as a special case. This is unconstitutional and criminal.
All entry visas for anybody must be based on reciprocal arrangements. If the US charges us x amount, we will also charge x amount for their citizens to enter Zambia.
This doesn’t make sence, ho wcan a tour operator mislead tourists about Visa fees when he benefits from people coming in to the country? I think the Minister had nothing to talk about or he was just due for his weekly government warning to any and everyone.
Hahahahaha!
No 9, Please refrain from such foul language, thats not being Zambian and doesnt go well with modern civilization.
#2 shut up i have been to MEXICO,please you can`t even start talking about mexico,mexico is much much developed than zambia,just the economy of mexico city you cannot compare it to the economy of the whole zambia,and for your infor the biggest city in MEXICO is called mexico city.2 The economy of Indonesia youcan not compare it with zambian economy,you can not,you know what go back to school and get your grade 7 certificate.
The tourists have choices. Zambia is an expensive country to visit before they have arrived. The camps and lodges have raised tariffs that exclude many of the same tourists that have made Zambia a place to visit. Be foolish and think Zambia is the only game around. The tourists have options and will go to other more friendly countries.
kaingu should be fired, he has caused all these problems.
I don’t think the small matter of $50 dollars would discourage a tourist. After all, we need to feed the Home Affairs employees.
The Brits are charged GBP £75 for a single entry and the Americans for $135 single or multiple entry. Tourists that once came over on the Day Tripper from Vic Falls to Livingstone for various activities have refused to pay the the cost of a visa on top of the price of the activity. Toursits that once would go to Livingstone are heading over to Vic Falls because its cheaper there. Zambia is losing revenue already.
First of all u have Vera chiluba as deputy minister of tourism lol ok pple what in the world has zed come to.. visa fees.. i think they should increse them other countries charge us alot of ish to go to they places so increase them fines..
oh ya dora siliya.. lol what does she know oh munkombwe lol.. fashion phiri pple should i go any further plzzzzz… thats why im sticking to ma name ZAMBIAN AGAINS ALL PPLE IN GRZ” that includes LPM”
#9 (Sipopa Muhapi wa Mafatsi) is parading total insanity and retarded thinking. The whole blog is a heap of invectives against Sata. It gives one an impression that #9 is not intelligent and is full of beastly anger. He or she could have delivered the message in an effective manner without a single insult. It’s a shame for some one to come out like an imbecile. #9 try to stand in front of a mirror and repeat the words loudly as you stare in the mirror. I’m sure you will see a very ugly person saying the same nonsense back at you. You should be feeling remorseful for all you wrote. One day your own foul mouth and dirty tongue will smack your face.
Hey, visa fees are a way of raising funds damnit! The UK charges all sorts of fees and have recently introduced another set of fees?? Whether or not these deter people, we’ll have to wait and see…but if you ask me people are flocking in without a care!! Visitors to Zed will have to PAY and besides their currencies are much stronger than the ZMK. Infact you’d be shocked to hear how ‘cheap’ they say life is in Zambia. The price of lager in Zambia is cheap and they down the stuff like water so what’s a few bob spent on a visa going to do!? Thumbs up to HIKED VISA fees!!!!!!!
There’s 100,000 Brits a year that come to Zambia. Don’t have the numbers on Yanks. If a significant percentage of these guys stop coming because of the rediculous visa fees:
British Passport Holder Single 3 months GBP £75
Double / Multiple 3 months GBP £240
U.S. Passport Holder Multiple Entry (only) 3 years USD $135
And now that Livingstone doesn’t have the Day Tripper pass, there will be far more revenue and job loss because of the changes. Nobody is complaining about this:
All Other Nationals Single Entry 3 months $50
Double Entry 3 months $80
Multiple Entry 3 months $160
The tourists can live with $50.
High visa fees in Zambia simply won’t persuade a foreign Govt to reduce visa fees for Zambian nationasl. So it would be best for Zambia to set visa fees at a level that maximises revenue – and not worry about what Zambians get charged elsewhere. Although Europeans are wealthier than Zambians, you can’t raise visa fees infinitely and still tempt people. My guess is that $50-$80 is right to get money but not deter visitors – and make special provision for 24/48 hour passes at Victoria Falls (and have cheaper re-entry passes there) if it deters people from coming across. But it’s up to the Zambian Govt. I’m due to come to Zambia for the first time in September – really looking forward to it.
I too am visiting Zambia in September and looking forward to it but I find as a Brit that £240 for double entry is far too much on top of everything else we have to pay and am not happy about it. The lodges are also expensive. I would have gone elsewhere in Africa (as I am sure a lot of tourists are doing) if I wasn’t committed to a volunteer project.
Next time we will go back to Botswana or Namibia or Kenya or Tanzania or South Africa etc. – and avoid coming to Zambia unless they reduce their visa fees which are too high. There will be such a reduction in tourist visitors it is a shame for the people in the tourist industry in Zambia who will suffer.
I don’t fault Zambia for trying to raise money, but I’m going to visit Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe side instead. I can’t justify paying $135 for a visa on top of the cost of the flight, hotel and other expenses.
I’m traveling in Africa for 3 months and purposely skipping Zambia since there are so many other options around where I don’t have to pay $135 for a visa as a US citizen and I can see Vic Falls from Zimbabwe for much cheaper. This hike will most definitely affect the tourism industry in Zambia and the money lost on that will far outweigh the gains from the increased visa fees.
Reciprocity visa fees are pointless. The US charges high fees for Zambians because there are interviews etc involved in figuring out illegal immigration risks of that tourist. Zambians are not helping the US tourism industry. American and other tourists are driving Zambia’s economy, on the other hand