The Zambia Tourism Agency (ZTA) is optimistic that inflow of tourist arrivals will increase following a turbulent 2020 that saw the sector heavily hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
ZTA Acting Chief Executive Officer Doris Kofi says the indications look positive.
Ms Kofi expressed confidence that by the second half of the year, the number of tourist arrivals is likely to upsurge.
She says the COVID-19 National Vaccination programme is likely to help boost international tourist arrivals as visitors will have confidence in the tourism workforce as they get inoculated.
The Acting CEO has however bemoaned the lack of tourist arrivals last year which was heavily triggered by the grounding of the aviation sector as a result of the pandemic.
Ms Kofi was however quick to mention that with people embracing the new-normal, numbers are slowly improving, making it a positive sign for the sector.
“Last year we closed the year, ranging between 70 to 75 percent, we were reviewing our first quarter 2021 tourist arrivals, the decline is in the range of up to 29 percent which is not very bad considering we are coming from up to 75 percent fall,” Ms Kofi says.
And Ms Kofi notes that domestic tourism has improved in the country, adding that the country is currently unprecedentedly having more domestic tourists than international arrivals.
She has attributed this to the eagerness being generated by local tourists to explore Zambian sites.
Ms Kofi explained that social media has helped in the promotion of domestic tourism.
“If I give you an example, out of the Victoria Falls in the first quarter 2021 we had 23 thousand visitors out of those 1,014 were international, the rest 22 thousand plus were domestic. Previously the ratio in very extreme cases would be 70 percent international and 30 percent domestic,”
Zambia last year recorded 400 thousand international tourist arrivals in comparison with the 1.2 million arrivals pre-COVID 19 era.
DIGRESSING FROM THIS WHERE IS THE RETRACTION FROM BLOOMBERG ON KCM
Mmmm.. apapene? Only a week ago we were told ati tourists theliz no.
They are trooping to watch president Nkandu Luo.
Just as soon as the UK government allows us, we’ll be back to see our many friends in Zambia! Keep safe, all of you – see you later this year!
Detects? How?
Vey difficult to enter Zambia from the USA because of the Zambian government requires a negative conid-19 72 hrs. before departure . I Can not make international plane travel with connections to meet that requirement. Kenya has 96 hr. window for this reason. I have had my vacation for covid-19 and have a CDC vacation card proving this just like my yellow fever vacation card, which is accepted for yellow fever proof. Looking forward to my return trip to Zambia. I am from the USA and find Zambia a wonderful country.