PRESIDENT Banda says the direct contribution of tourism to Zambia’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to reach US$412 million this year.
This is about 2.3 percent of the country’s total GDP.
The President said according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism is expected to directly support 22,000 jobs.
He was speaking during the 10th anniversary of Sun International in Livingstone last evening.
“Our hopes for the tourism sector are justifiably high,” he said.
He said he is confident that by 2015, the country will meet the target of attracting four million international tourists yearly, by which year tourism is expected to contribute about eight percent of Zambia’s GDP.
President Banda said he is interested in seeing more Zambians venturing into the tourism and hospitality sectors.
“This country has a massive outlay of natural wonders to offer the world, and there are armies of tourists visiting and trying to visit Zambia, which means business opportunities are already guaranteed. My government has taken a number of steps to make citizens’ empowerment a reality, and we also have promoted the concept of public partnership ventures,” he said.
The President said the 2011 national budget has allocated K76 billion to various empowerment programmes.
President Banda said the resources are targeted at sections of society that are usually unable to access funds through financial institutions.
He said the targeted groups are the youth, the women and persons with disabilities.
“My government has gone as far as providing very clear guidelines to all the fund managers on how the funds should be managed to make sure the resources go to the intended beneficiaries,” he said.
President Banda said in Zambia, micro, small and medium-scale enterprises dominate sectors such as agriculture, trade, textiles, construction, manufacturing, transport, information and communication technologies and hospitality.
He said these provide the largest share of employment opportunities to the people, especially in the rural and peri-urban areas.
“I therefore want to encourage the honourable Minister of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources and her colleagues to work extra hard to promote tourism and hospitality sectors as viable investment arenas which can generate profits and create jobs. Domestic tourism also does need vigorous promotion,” he said.
President Banda said Zambia is blessed to have 19 well-endowed national parks, 36 game management areas, and more than 20 magnificent waterfalls, including the famous and spectacular Victoria Falls.
“The challenge is for all of you to plan to visit and sample some of these natural wonders and motivate others to do so as well,” he said.
The President congratulated Sun International on attaining 10 years of active business with service in Zambia’s dynamic tourism industry.
“It is my hope and prayer that you will look to the future with a creative mentality, and also learn from mistakes and shortcomings of days gone by.
“Business is about people. Profits are about people. At a certain point, every investment must cater for the human development realities in the surrounding communities,” he said.
President Banda said every investment must recognise the value and importance of the surrounding communities.
“This is the meaning of corporate social responsibility. This is why I do not hesitate to applaud and commend Sun International for looking into surrounding communities and venturing out to make a real difference among our people. When you serve the needy, the profits will not be financial, but they will come in the form of heartfelt public goodwill. At the end of the day, as the Bible says, a good name is better than riches,” the President said.
He said he is inspired to see that Sun International has touched many lives through its rays of hope programme, which provides for economic empowerment and ecological conservation.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
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its always the big numbers coming out of every politicians mouth this election year, but when you sit down and reflect how baseless and empty this fiigures are you can even cry.
Empty Calabashes of of them !!
Our students say that by then, the good Zimbabwean tourism will be 4 times better than Zambia and the numbers will be four fold unless we deal with issues relating to hygiene in Livingstone and other towns. Other issue include the high cost of accommodation on the Zambian side and the poor state of our infrastructure.
Oh Dear! Iwe RB your own govt is supposed to collect statistics about your own economy. Why would you refer to the World Travel and Tourism council about the number of tourism jobs in Zambia? What is Namugala’s Ministry doing; let alone the Central Statistics Office? Please tell your Ministries, Bank of Zambia, and CSO to be upto date with Zambia’s statistics. Countries like Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa have already announced the first quarter 2011 economic growth figures of their economies. And Zambia will only know in May 2012! Disgusting!
I hope pipo in Malota can eat these figures
Mr. Mushiwa Likota, the first quarter GDP growth results are already out. The growthn rate is 7.1%. The second quarter forecast is 6.8%. The forecasts for 3rd and 4th quarter are also out. You can even get them from the Standard Bank bulletins. Wake up!
Mr. Mushiwa Likota, the first quarter GDP growth results are already out. The growthn rate is 7.1%. The second quarter forecast is 6.8%. The forecasts for 3rd and 4th quarter are also out. You can even get them from the Standard Bank bulletins. Wake up – washala!
Good observation @ Matero University, we also need a carrier with the Zambian flag to bring people to Zambia.
@ 2 Matero Uni. and @ 3 Musiwa, Very well said. @ 6 Pupwe, the standard chartered figures are very biased. The collection methods are not scientific and usually favor a pessimistic view resulting in high interest rates. The institutions that Musiwa has alluded to have the power and authority from the government to collect the information through an wholistic and very well scientifically designed objective random method. They should be the source of all data about our economic. They even have the authority to collect the data from all banks if they so wished.
#5 Pupwe no Musungu, Standard Bank is not a Zambian govt institution. Well run govts dont sit on their ass/es and wait for some outsider to do their homework. You people never learn! You are too trusting and just plain gullible. Wasnt it due to your own lack of self generated data that your govt sold the mines for a song allegedly because the outside ‘data experts’ told you that copper will run out in ‘7 years’? You had at the helm of ZCCM Zambians who never cared to carry out geological surveys and you continously get short changed. Equinox Minerals with one operating mine (Lumwana) was recently sold for $7bn. Do you know what was sold? It is the uranium and copper in the ground. It is worth over $7bn all because Equinox carried out their own exploration to get the mineral data.