Foreign Affairs minister Kabinga Pande has appealed to the New York-based Africa Travel Association (ATA) to assist the Zambian Government attract more United States of America (USA)tourists.
Speaking at ATA’s Third Annual Africa Presidential Forum on Tourism in New York City, Saturday, Mr. Pande said Zambia had some of the best natural tourist attractions in Africa adding that government had introduced rebates in various sectors for people wishing to invest in the country.
According to a statement recieved by ZANIS from the Zambia mission in New York and signed by Assistant Secretary Moses Walubita, Mr Pande’s presentation showcased success stories of Zambia and the importance of travel and tourism industry to its economy, stability and overall development.
” The Zambian Government was trying its best to promote tourism and visits to Zambia would be memorable for Americans,” he said.
The ATA forum held at New York University Saturday ran parallel to the 63rd Regular Session of the United Nations General Assembly and brought together some African ministers to basically make presentations on their countries as tourist destinations.
In Mr. Pande’s presentation included the introduction to Zambian tourism, the importance of tourism in the development of the sector, Zambia in the United States of America and Canada, challenges to the growth of tourism as perceived by the US markets, and the way forward.
On the introduction to Zambian tourism, the minister gave historical perspectives and social sector to an economic sector in the MMD-led government while the importance of tourism in the development of the sector was generation of employment, revenue and social and economic benefits.
Government’s role in the development of the sector included legislation, policy guidelines, that is investment and planning; funding of infrastructure for the development of tourism and funding of tourism outfits.
Mr. Pande whose presentation said Zambia’s natural attractions included 19 national parks, the Victoria Falls and culture diversity.
He said challenges to the growth of tourism as perceived by the US market were distance, an increase in the number of direct flights; affordability comparing to Europe and other destinations, and underrated tourism appeal.
” Zambia has a diversified tourism product – natural parks, culture, heritage sites and monuments. Other challenges were safety, lack of geographical knowledge about Africa always banded together, and language barrier as Zambia is an English-speaking country,”said the minister.
On the way forward, the minister said there was need to change misconceptions. The travel industry, such as the ATA was encouraged to create awareness of Zambia’s diverse tourism attributes throughout North America. Zambia needed more investment in tourism.
Mr. Pande said Zambia’s greatest asset was its friendly people as the country has been a peace broker since independence. Zambia was reinvesting in tourism by opening unexploited areas.
He invited ATA’s Past Executive Officer Mira Berman to visit Zambia. Mrs. Berman held the position from 1990 to 2006.
The ATA discussion was on Africa’s vast travel and investment opportunities. This year’s theme, “Showcasing Destination Africa: Unleashing the Possibilities”, aimed to celebrate the continent as a premier global travel destination and to highlight its vast travel trade possibilities and success stories.
ATA’s Executive Officer, Edward Bergman, said the just-ended Dubai World Africa joining the association as it Premier Partner, investment opportunities in the tourism sector would be highlighted.
Mr. Bergman said in just three years, ATA”s Africa Presidential Forum had become a unique one-of-a-kind event on the travel industry calendar. In 2006, at the inaugural Forum, the Heads of State of Nigeria and Tanzania launched the event with an audience of 100 travel industry experts.
In 2007, eight leaders from Benin, Cape Verde, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia; and the African Union, spoke to an audience of 200 on the need to market “Destination Africa” in way that benefits both the continent as a whole and each individual country.
ZANIS/MM/ENDS
Pick up the garbage in the streets, fix roads, airport and transportation woes before you start promoting tourism. Zambia is so dirty and uninviting.
I guess we are waiting for the Chinese to pick up garbage for us since we can’t do anything for ourselves everything has to be done by donor countries etc. What a country.
I agree with #1. We need Clean and crime free tourist resorts. Not like dirty Livingstone with money changers running after tourist.
Am sorry but when where you #1 and #2 last in Zambia coz its not as bad as that last time i checked i went with friends they where actually suprised
Pande FYI countries like Kenya,Tanzania and Zimbabwe are well known in the USA because we are able to see Ads on CNN about their wildlife and sure.So don’t just invite one of your friends and try to make a big deal out it.Print nice posters that can be put around places like colleges and travel agencies.
THAT IS THE WHOLE IDEA OF sYLVIA mASEBOS KEEP zAMBIA CLEAN CAMPAIGN, There are those who are responding to it and if we all have a positive attitude towards it we shall make Zambia clean. It is not a MMD problem as a majority of councils are in fact run by the opposition. It seems to be an attitude problem of us individual Zambians- we are good at complaigning and nothing else.
Even if they flock in numbers, so what? The parks, lodges and big hotels are run by foreigners that import everything from orange juice. So what’s the real benefit for Zambia? The meagre slave salaries paid to the Zambian hotel butlers and waiters? C’mon this is a joke
Guys where can i watch the Zambia under 20 match against Egypt? Its on now
Tourism, mining, construction, it’s all the same story. These foreign investors, come in, reap and leave the place worse than they found it because we are at their mercy despite being in a supplier drive world. We should dictate and not them. If Canada with the same natural resources as Zambia can be RICH and PROSPEROUS, why should we be poor?
#8, That is the reason as to why you need good business negotiators and economic managers in power such as HH. Unfortunately others are so deep rooted into tribalism not to see and realise that the world currently requires economic managers and good negotiators into power and not dictators (such as Sata and Idi Amini) in power. Untill Zambia comes to a realisation that education is highly required for proper management that God has given us, we will always lag behind. HH is the way forward if Zambia is to develop. Look at this KK was a form 2 when he came into power, FTJ was a grade 12 failure when he came into power and all of them never made any economic gains for the country…
Weldone Mr. Minister. We got to tart from somewhere. Actually threre has been some marked improvement in zambia. The minister is one of the few dicent and sane ones. Keep selling the country. You people cant compare Zim and kenya to zambia. Zambia shall be saved.
Please don’t decry your country. Zambia is for every Zambian and not politicians alone. You all play a part to attract foreign tourists. In actual fact tourists do not go for ‘home away from home’ destinations. They like authentic places not imitations of their countries. What is needed is security. Zambians themselves must market their country by speaking well of it. This attitude of speaking ill of your leaders and country is detrimental to progress. Thousands of people visit Rwanda and Burundi and eastern Congo inspite of the troubles there. You do not need tarred roads or high rise buildings for succesful tourism. This is the era of eco-tourism and the more natural the habitat, the bette
#11…and what happens after the tourists come to Zambia?
FOOLISH PANDE. YOU MEAN YOU DON’T HOW SOUTH AFRICA ADVERTISES ABROAD? BILL BOARDS, PUBLIC TRANSPORT (INCLUDING TAXIS), SUBWAYS, ETC.
BEFORE U EVEN DO THAT CLEAN THE TOWN FIRST AND DEVELOP TRANSPORT POWER, COMMUNICATIONS, ETC, INFRASTRUCTURE.
How many Americans were in attendance Pande? How many will even bother coming to Zed a place where even I feel unsafe?
Zambia needs to be PROPERLY MARKETED and that will start bringing about tourists ! Most tourists do not go to African countries because they expect to find top of the range communications and infrastructure – they mainly come for the wildlife and are happy to sleep in lodges and the like. That being said, we still need to do what we can to fix up and our roads, airports etc.
#14 – kenya is one of the UN safest countries on the continent but tourists go there in flocks because of the marketing strategy. For your own information, Zambia is still one of teh safest places in Africa.
SOME FOOLISH ZAMBIANS CANT SAY ANYTHING POSITIVE ABOUT ZAMBIA BUT THEY ARE JUST COMPLAINING ALWAYS!!!!IF YOU ARE NOT PROUD OF WHERE YOU COMING FROM THEN WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO TO BE PROUD OF?
# 16 Everyone is proud of zambia, Its just that when you travel and you see things like tall buildings, clean roads and all that stuff you wonder why zambia cant do it. We’ve had freesom for 40 years and FIDECO house is the only building still standing tall in our capital city. There’s no touch of unique architecture in Lusaka,its all basic stuff. We need to change our attitudes and stop looking like beggers, we cry for investment day in day out but cant empower our people, zambia has beautiful scenery to attract tourists but who owns the tourists companies and lodges?Hopefully zambians, It doesnt matter if they are white asian or black aslong as they are zambian.
There is so much foolish blogging on this site it is not even funny. For starters Tourists bring in Forgien Exchange when they visit which benefits the economy. The hotels and lodges owned by expatriates create jobs with over 90% of locals in employment. All these entities are taxed so the more they make the more cash goes into govt coffers.
There is so much dirt in the Bronx, Brooklyn etc yet New York still makes cash from Tourist.
Please if you have no idea of how tourism works please keep quite. Ba Koswe
Lack of strategic planing in Zed.
ait that veras job with her minister to imrpove the marketing of tourism in zed?
I think part of the problem is the negativity emanating from the Zambians themselves. The way some people talk, even I as a Zambian would not want to visit the country. Actually, in recent years we have seen an increase in the number of visitors to Zambia. In the UK, Zambia is regularly featured in the travel magazines which was not the case in the past. What is needed now is to build on that, for example develop infrastructure around the various falls in Luapula and the Northern province for example. Also, it would be great to see more promotion of traditinal ceremonies besides the Kuomboko, Umutomboko and N’cwala. I have never seen any photos of the Kulamba or Ukusefya pa ng’wena
ceremonies for example. These ceremonies have just taken place and yet there is no photographic record of them.
#17 you seem stuck with the idea that high rise buildings are ‘development’. It may be a ‘pointer’ but it is not in itself a pre-requisite to development. A lot can be said about Windhoek which in my view has many buildings of humble height yet is competitively attractive.I agree with you on other points though, but Zambia needs to prioritize on basic infrastructure development such as roads and develop its communication system in and around tourist areas. Tall buildings will then come from the arising need to have more office space, diversity as the economy grows.
I’m not stuck with idea of tall buildings its an example of zambia not developing thats what you are meant to see.We are stuck!All we want to do is promote our wildlife and traditional ceremonies.Don’t we have more to offer in terms of tourism?#18 can you compare bauleni to the bronx do they have dirt roads and shacks?Do they have roadside accumulation of rubbish? and quit with the ba konswe cant you make someone seem stupid intelligently,and ofcourse everyone knows tourists bring in capital but why cant the companies be owned by zambians?Should everything touristic be foreign owned in our own country?we know zambia better than anyone,yet we always wait for someone to come and do it for us!
#24 you are totally right. Decent infrastructure is a sign that taxes are being collected from tourism activities and used to improve the infrastructure, but this is not the case. Fees for lodges owned by foreigneres are paid via the internet and the money goes straight to foreign accounts so theres no benefit there. If they can order everything they need for the lodges from SA how else do they contribute to the ecomomy? Through the meagre wages they pay their workers and selling sculptures? C’mon lets be serious
#25 . The payment made online should reflect on the books of the lodges when they do their finacial statements at the end of a fisical period.
#24. But here is the point. Tourists are not coming to Zed to see clean neibor hoods, how developed we are or whether we have tall buildings or good roads. These pipo are coming to see wildlife, Vic falls and what our primitive pipo in the bush have to offer.
Lets be objective in our criticism of our country..
#26 Do we in this day and age really have to describe ourselves as ‘primitive’? To me that is indicative of the self loathing we are discussing here. Why take on the labels that the colonialists gave to us as Africans? There is nothing ‘primitive’ about any of us even the majority of our people who live in the rural areas.
It would be good in the future to get to a point where our own people are able to see what Zambia has to offer. How many of our people are able to go and see animals in our 19 National Parks? If the govt increased wealth, then that would be possible.
This whole promote Zambia to Americans doesn’t add up unless it is just a means to suck money out of us. Lowering the visa fees would be a good start if Zambia is serious. Otherwise, we will go where it is cheaper.
Even the lodges have raised their rates to outrageous levels. $600 to do a couple bush walks and sleep in huts. Not worth it. Other countries offer the same or even better experiences for far less.
If you call washing clothes , dishes, and bathing in a river is not primitive or ikuni and buckets put on ones head than please educate me on a substitute word. Traditional ceremonies and all that is part of our culture. If you want to call it civilised than go ahead but the fact of the matter it is not.
No offense to all kumushi but just calling a spade a spade!!
This is cool and these guys are welcome, bring them to Zambia
Rumour has it, Pande Veep!!!!!!!
#29 the Yank is right, we have to be more competitive, the air fares are so high for a start that people need to find a good deal waiting when they get to Z. Otherwise they’ll go to SA, Tanzania, Kenya or even Zim…
Most of you are just armchair critics, if you have bothered to invest in Zambia some of you wouldn’t be talking this nonsense. There is money in tourism, lots of it that foreigners come with. We need to work on transport infrastructure so that tourists can get to all corners of the country. We need to educate our rural folk on community or ‘village tourism’ by helping them set up such businesses. For example RSA and Kenya make plenty of from village tourism. There are at least 2 jobs created for every tourist that visits our country. Zambia currently has limited bedspace which is an opportunity for you armchair critics to get into the sector and fill up the limited bedspace. Promote Zambia!!
when Sata comes to office, tourists will be flocking in because he will clean up. Imwe let’s jump on the boat
yes, we need to lower air fairs per zed. lower visa fees, clean up out dirty from our towns and cities including lusaka int. airport.we need to have good roads and hospitals where sick tourists casn be treated instead of waiting to evacuating them to rsa.
tourists today are concerned about their health and they dont want to walk in unhygeinic towns and cities and drink dirty water while going to watch the animals
pick up the rabbish around and then invite the tourists?Are you a tourism minister of rubbish!!!!!!!!
Mr Mbuzi those things may be considered primitive but to me i’d rather say underveloped and i’m not going to embrace it just because thats what happens.Zambia went from a developing nation to Least developing thats a record on its own.So since we are primitive and a tourist gets sick while in the village,our “primitive” people will treat them with thier primitive medication which might work sometimes but for safety reasons why dont we build a clinic or hospital nearby. Should we just say these are our primitive people they are here for tourists to see as if they are some bloody animals.You may be in touch with the world but they intouch with zambia’s traditions,our history,respect them.
Cont…And i’m sure they can educate you on that. What we need to do is help them adapt into the modern world without disrupting their ways. #34 clearly states that.
Huff and puff is all I see here. As long as African presidents have the powers they do, nothing will change.
LT. THERE WAS SOME TOURISM ACTIVITIES GOING ON IN SAMFYA AND THE REST OF LUAPULA PROVINCE WHERE MORE THAN 150 TOURIST WENT AT A GO. PLEASE, REPORT ON THAT PROGRESSIVE ISSUE AND SHOW US SOME IMAGES OF SAMFYA BEACHES THE NEGLECTED PLACE IS ONE OF THE FEW WONDERFUL PLACES ON EARTH. GUYS GOOGLE “SAMFYA BEACHES” AND SEE WHAT THESE ZAMBIAN GOVTs HAVE NOT BOTHERED TO REALLY DEVELOP. I GO TO BEACHES HERE (OVERSEAS), NO BEACH HERE CAN MATCH OR COME NEAR TO SAMFYA BEACHES.
Bwana Mpande, it could help so much if the government empowered local councils to market their own tourism. Give councils money to upgrade roads (not engaging contractors) but by buying them equipment to do roads everytime when their is a need, water and sanitation as well as security. You cannot start marketing Zambia as a whole without structures in place at district level and expect to get better results. Start with pilot projects like e.g, Samfya (to quote from Peter #41), Itezhi-tezhi (now forgotten by the government) to name but a few. Tourism is not all about Livingstone please Mr Minister of Tourism.