Government has embarked on a programme of opening up new tourism resorts in order to attract more foreign tourist inflows into the country.
Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources Minister, Michael Kaingu said the programme to open new tourism resorts will offer Zambia an opportunity to show case her tourism potential to other regions in the world.
The Minister said this in an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka today.
Mr. Kaingu cited Kasaba Bay as one of the tourism resort areas which needed to be revamped in order to foster tourism development in the Northern and Luapula circuits respectively.
He further said the country had unique sceneries that needed to be marketed on the international market in order to spur economic development in the tourism sector.
He cited road rehabilitations, hotel constructions and the electrification of key areas in tourism resort areas as some of the programmes that his ministry was working on with a view to developing the country’s tourism to greater heights.
And Mr. Kaingu has urged tour operators in the country to take advantage of the forth-coming 2010 Soccer World Cup tournament and the 2011 All African Games in Zambia by seriously market the country’s tourism potential.
Mr. Kaingu said tour operators should make the 2010 Soccer World Cup slated for South Africa and the 2011 All African Games to be held in Zambia as a marketing tool for the country’s tourism sector.
He further disclosed that his ministry was in the process of coming up with the carnival type of tourism which would enable the country to market its tourism potential meaningfully to other regions.
Mr. Kaingu has since challenged the private sector to join efforts with government and take advantage of the coming World Cup and the All African Games to improve the hospitality standards and the communication sector in the country.
Tired of this government to do what and what talk. Do it then tell us that government has done this! We are many years behind; for which reason i feel very sad everytime i travel out of Zed. I am always asking myself …’where were we when our colleagues were making so much progress?’
TRAVEL TO NAMIBIA JUST NEAR BY AND THEN TELL US WHAT TOURISM YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. OUR SO CALLED TOURIST CAPITAL IS SIMPLY A NATIONAL MUSEUM. yOU TRAVEL EXTENSIVELY BUT COME BACK WITH NOTHING.
When the Govt came into the power,they promised to do things.When is it the rit time to stop promising n start implementing?IAm tired of reading plans from ministers.
Anp plz,it was an an embarrasment to watch Zambia game on Supersport3 from such a poor stadium.I was made to coverup to the pple in ma office that Konkola stadium is bn used coz we are buildn new stadia.Is Konkola stadium in the Bush or what?Its a shame to b a Zambian at times.No stadium, no good airport,no good roads.Wake up Govt n prioritise development plz…………
Baby c atishani can they manage why promising alot of things at once.this is a sign of failure.cipeshamano fye.ba RB balimu cibe ati baimya za hour babemisha ubwatoo…
Ndipo mucomplainer!!Geez!!
LT nkalani bwino, ndine guy wapa Zed. Why ka flag ako??
#5 u can never satisfy some people.
#1. Zambisiza,
Instead of being tired of the situation, what are you doing about it yoursef as an individual.
Remember Isaac Newton did not wait for the govt to discover electricity.
Bill Gates did not wish the government came up with software.
Mutembo Nchito did not wait for the govt to come up with an airline.
etc.
It is not govt alone to change society, its individuals.
Otherwise, with that attitude, you will keep blaming govt, and govt will keep blaming the western countries/institutions, while the western countries/institutions will keep making money out of our situation.
power to the people
Pabwatoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
How can you boost tourism when on the other hand you want to squeeze your local carrier- Zambian Airways that is helping to bring the same tourist badly want? MK tell us have they(RB and Co)stopped victimising you and ur colleages who did not vote for RB? What is happening to the Mositonya stadium that was promised to us by the MMD Govt and when is it coming?Tourism can only boost if remove all the movement of mad dreamers coz they do not know what they are doing and always contradict themselves from morning to evening,sunday to saturday,jan to dec.Nothing tangible will come out of these confused lot called MMD.
#10. Confused Lot,
This is the problem with African Businessmen; They want to always blame the govt for their own inefficient.
When you make your clothes dirty please learn to clean them up with your own detergent, Zambian Airways is a private firm.
Who told them not to honour you business operational responsibility?
They think all Zambian are very dull people, they owe NAC alot of money and they want the government to give them a soft loan by defering their payments.
They cant even tell that NAC needs cash for its operations. Zambians are not fools. Now they are looking for symphathy from us; let them clean up their own clothes; they are not a parastatal,OK.
#11 continued..
Why can’t this wrong mentality come out of our minds.
Why do we keep thinking that govt should run our business?
They mismanage their own private investment then they cry fawl to the govt.
This is grade three commerce; that when you are in business and are renting, dont fail to take care of your rentals, and project your costs well.
Now, Zambian Airways wants tax payers money and now they are making a lot of noise to make it look like someone else is responsible for their bad position.
Ah, you guys! Is Africa going to continue to think like this honestly?
Sad!
bms9 ala ama developmental issues yaliba ayashupa. Zambian politicians are the first on the list when it comes to lying. any way we are used. Zambians 4get easily Ba late balilanda.
I must repeat if as african businessmen we dont change our attitudes,
we will keep blaming govt, and govt will keep blaming the western countries/institutions, while the western countries/institutions will keep making money out of our situation and our poorly managed resources.
Your son hasn’t combed his hair before going to school you start blaming the govt.
You eat food sold on the street without even washing your hands you want to blame govt.
Aaah guys, what’s wrong?
I agree with 14 i think as African Businessmen we have to define our course. I personally get offended when see people on the news blaming the government/concil for broken drainage pipe in their yard.Surely you dont expect Silvia Masebo to fixx that for you..In this information age Gentlemen we cant afford to be failures. Government only exist to create a fitting environmwent for busness.It is totally up to us to develop this country
No.1 you got a point there. I wish WE could subject these Ministers
to Quarterly audits(say question and answer session), where they account for the progress they have made on particular pronouncements they have issued.
otherwise you will continue hearing wild and empty statements like;
* Oil in northwestern and Govt ‘will exploit this resource’,
* Govt has created jobs …. tell us how many jobs have been created
in which industry and what type of jobs(not casual labour pliz).
* Works on Dag stadium have started … my foot, this started in 1986, Harrington lied about it, Chulumnda and now Nmulambe is lying about it.
As for No.8 ba Fine, we are hard working pipo my dear.
The Zambian Airways issue has a lot of details that are not told to the public. I think its time more details are availed. I agree that the government should not give them preferential treatment… there are too many Zambian businesses running and none of them get preferential treatment… (instead we prefer to nyengelela the MNCs that come from RSA etc. Shame!) Government should collect its money through NAC so that it can also run smoothly and upgrade itself. Do we need to risk developing our airports for because of Nchito and his colleagues just because its a Zambian company?
No.14 umo muli sense mune! epashili pa ku leka apo.
aka Mulozi ka sosa toteni .. imwe toteni eti.
We are tired of politicians gaining political mileage based on lies and deceit. Everytime we kongola money, its headline news as if its a good thing. Yet our grandchildren will be suffering because of it. Everytime an idea is thought (like this very one), we celebrate and yet nothing will be done about it. We need to mature. we need to have more serious leaders. I even propose that minimum qualifications for MPs and Ministers be upgraded. No under-5 ‘kids’, minimum Masters’ Degree! Surely to be a project manager in an organisation, you need qualifications… what more a ministers handling our tax payers money and a whole ministry!
No. 13 Baby C chilishani apa nabena bms9? am jealous, shi mpelako naine akaiche kobe ka Baby D.
aka Mulozi ka voka nakabili
Good idea Kaingu but its too late for such plans. The boat is approaching fuma munshila kabwalala iwe.
Viva project management knowlege for evry MP.
ushateshe ba No.19 mwana waba …… wishi.
Also car loans shud be less than K60m if you want
more, join the private sector.full stop
ka ng’oza futi aka Mulozi nangu tamu tota shuwa ..
No 15 you are only 30% right, but 70 % wrong because Governement and their partners are also responsible for the well being of its citzen including mobilising resources for basic and vital infrastructure development and social services that is why we PAY TAX. Yes I have build a beatiful House in Woodlans and i have a beatuful office space for other to rent. But this place has no roads and no swage systems. So How can i start start building a road as a citizen. Governmen Can also bail out a strategic business or Instition like the USA that have recently temp. nationalised Fannie mae and Freddie mac Mortgage Firm to protect its economy and citizens.
Why is everything we do tailored for the outside world? Instead of focusing our efforts on attracting foreign tourists, we need to make it more affordable for Zmabians to visit our toursists attractions. The average Zambian cannot afford to visit any of the tourist attractiosn yet we want to pride ourselves on being endowed with tourist attractions. Nothing against foreign visitors but I think our government needs to start putting Zambians first. If we can’t get that in our own country then where?
# 24 Any suggestions how this can be done?? I like your logic about putting Zambians first…
#25.. The first thing would be to have Zambians pay fees that are lower than foreigners to visit Game parks and other tourist attractions. I don’t know if this has been done before but I think tha would be one way to ecourage our people to visit these places. The average tour package in Zambia cost between $5,000 and $10,000 in Zambia today, this is way above what an ordinary Zambian can afford and as a result we are relegated to viewing our wildlife on TV. We need special tour packages aimed at ordinary Zambians cause as more Zambians have access to these places, the more we’ll apprecaite them and help in their preservation. That would be a good first step
Pls Ba Zed, do not vote for Sata, this man is too rough, I remember Saka sacking a worker on the Phone, when he was Minister of Health.This man is fit to be the Inspector General of Police,as he is a former Police constable.
#26 Logic
Basic economic principles. As the price falls, the quantity supplied falls (provided everything remains constant).
If you drop the prices, the tour operators are not going to start their businesses because it would not be profitable.
Just let the free market work. As more tour operators come in, due to supply and demand, they’ll have to lower their prices if they want to get more customers. As for now, just live it as it is.
The problem with our leaders is that they just talk, talk ,talk.. no funding for projects, no action and misuse of funds if at all there’s some project funding.
Gentlemen, you can imagine our goverment has the guts to allow these investors to transfer local Company Like COPPERBELT BOTTLING CO. to Ndola without the people’s agreement. Do you call this developmental move while leaving other people jobless?
In the name of masive investment people are shifted and fired the on lookers m md and the hiden ncc.shift…shift…SHIFT ALA MWAKUSHA ABANTU PAFULA.
#8, leave #1 alone. #1 is spot on. The inventors/innovators/discoverers you are blindly talking about had access to financial facilities provided by their respective govts. During my school days at JETS students came up with brilliant projects. Did the govt finance any of them for industrial development and manufacturing? No. Worse still did any industry adopt those projects. No. And mind u there are those projects which are supposed to be undertaken by the govt and those by you and me in the supply chain. Road, rail line, construction are some of what no.1 is rightly talking about. Dont be blinded by the developed countries. They developed out govts-business-like decisions.
#25, and #26. Just to add on what #26 has rightly put across. The grz should also enact a policy whereby companies and organizations arrange day trips to those tourist destinations for the members of the employees’families (and friends) of those respective cos. n orgns. No holiday adys accummulated shld be xchanged for cash. This trips shld be subsidised by such cos n orgns. This can also create more jobs in the coach transport industry and the tourism industry, to mention but a few.
correction: No holiday days. Instead of No holidayadys, pls.
Why do you guys insist on twisting investors hands. Investors don’t sh1t money you know. They also have loans to pay.
Investors are not cash cows where you can demand anything and they are obliged to do it. You are reducing their profits and increasing their costs of doing business.
An investor is here to make money and not to be your daddy. Leave them (investors) alone. Let them do their business.
If you want to change something then start your own business.
#30 LULE, what is the name of your bottling company???
For some time, Siavonga has never been a priority in terms of development of basic infrastructure and promotion as a tourist or holiday destination. Our friends across the border in Kariba town appear to be more organised and focused in their development agenda. Yet we also have so much potential. The place is now just being messed up by the local council officials. Serious Government intervention is needed.
Is the minister serious of just politiking? Look at Livingstone the so called Zambia’s tourism capital.It has very bad roads.The building are urgly and unpainted. May be the poor infrustructure is part of tourism. Livingstone is a hot place,it has no public swimming pool. May be we are being led by primitive people who have no standards. If you watch adverts on some international Television stations they show the Victoria Falls as being in Zimbabwe only.Surely if tourism was so important why don’t we spend by marketing our country. A vision less people are no achievers. Please empower the people economically for development to come through.
#8 I agree with you. Let us stop complaining and just do our parts as individiuals. balekeni abo na govt yabo. Are we goin to eat govt? full of lies!
before we even start thinking about opening up new tourism resorts can the govt start with our infrastactures , look at kenya and nairobi airport you expect a tourist to pass through kenya or south africa just to come and visit zambia we need direct routes connecting lusaka airport.
# 11, 12 one of govt duties is to support local investors thats way zambia has a long way to go we worship foreign investors i dont see anything wrong in giving zambian airways a loan if the govt had shares in zambian airways it would have been a different story let the govt buy shares in zambian airways or help out with the loan
#17 you have missed the point. In business it is not strange to owe money. Even our government has nkongole (debt) locally and internationally. How many of our local suppliers and retirees have not been paid by government for many year even before Zambian Airways came into being.Some of the people owed have even died in poverty. The principal in business is to agree on debt repayment. Remember HIPC.
Apart from that the government must have governing principles.One of them is Citizens empowerment, the other being Buy Zambia. If the government misses its own direction then Zambian will forever remain poor. Please note my urgument would be different if the airline is refusing to pay its debt
Those ppl that just complain about GOVT doin nothing are a product of failure , thats y they live outside the country, they dont even own a katemba 4 groundnuts, so they shud just shut their becks n continue in there country, n leave us alone here in Zed, unless they are willing to come bak n face the reality back home
Shut up pleeese.
The problems we are experiencing are of own making. It is a shame that Government through its Ministers should making an issue of a commercial debt of only US$1.6 million . We are very petty , no wonder we sold our jewel mines for US$ 30 million – the kind of money spent on football players. We just have it wrong – our measures of success – three girl freinds , a japanses used car and an incomplete house.
My appeal to the younger generation , let rise to the occassion and change the destiny of the country. We cannot be having the same people leading us.They have no ideas that can take the country forward. Look at the lot trying for President – they have been doing politics since 1950’s
We need change for the better. When our friends the Nigerias in the diaspora are busy going back to Nigeria to start multinational companies , what are we doing ? Going to work in the UK and USA as maids and cleaners looking after the aged and we think we spending our time well. Wake up people, there will come a time when the world will no longer feel sorry for us and stop giving us aid.
We need to take charge of our destiney .Lets take out all the old politicians and new will a new lot. Do not expect different results doing the same thing 100 times. MSC , RB and the rest have had 45 years . What is it that they did not do that they will do now, in the next three years !
Well i do agree that Zambian Airways needs to be helped for it to continue flying. But what about the Airport Cooporation that is owed money. How then do we expect it to continue in business? How will it pay its workers and improve the poor facilities at its airports if companies that owe it money are excused? Alternatively GRZ shd pay NAC and then GRZ can wait for Zambian Airways to pay it when its ready. Surprising thing is that Zambian Airways is even failing to remit passenger service charges it collects on behalf of NAC through tickets. Is this not financial indiscipline on the part of the airline.
#28 In the US, its not uncommon to find cheaper rates for locals compared to what non locals pay. For example a fishing license is cheaper for in-state residents compared to out of state residents. I pick on fishing because this is both a hobby and tourist attraction for a lot of people. Entry into certain parks also attracts the same type of price discrimination. We are not saying throw out all the facets of a free market but simply allow the locals who the custodians of these attractions to enjoy them and hence add value to the same by promoting their preservation.
Uncle Phil, you hit the nail on the head. A Zambian politicain would rather see a foreign company progress than a Zambian one. We are basicaly pedestrians in the game of wealth sharing in our own country.
I agree with most of you but I still believe that the govt has a major part to play. The Zimba / Livingstone rd is pathetic. No individual can fix that. Again tourism should not be for foreigners only. What about local tourists. Those guys driving Toyota corolla and all the small cars you can think of. If govt paves the roads all the way to the parks then a lot of parents will take their kids. The 4×4 accessable roads only makes it easy for rich muzungus and the apa mwambas to tour these parks and we want to teach our kids about wildlife conservation?Please, Lets get real and improve on local tourism too. Fix them roads please.
# 45 nicely put.
What about the new construction of Legacy in the Mosi o-a-tunya park? The last I heard was that ZAWA did not give the permission to build in the park. Has Legacy found another location yet for the hotel and golf course? They wanted to be there for the 2011 soccer world cup. Will it be ready in time or not?