By ASTON M. KUSEKA –
ZAMBIA’s tourism sector is in for a major fillip following the World Bank’s approval of a US$100m credit to support the seven-year Green, Resilient and Transformational Tourism Project.
World Bank Country Director for Zambia, Nathan Beleta, announced this positive development at the recent media briefing held in Lusaka.
Mr Beleta explained that the project is, among other positive impacts, expected to increase jobs and revenue generation in Zambia’s tourism sector.
He further added that it will also enhance sector-governance through investments in building the capacity of sector-agencies.
Mr Beleta’s sentiments were endorsed and echoed by the World Bank’s Washington headquarters, which expressed happiness to contribute to efforts aimed at creating jobs and protecting nature through the tourism sector in Zambia.
In a press release, the Bank said its Board of Executive Directors had approved the credit in order to help strengthen Zambia’s nature-based economy and increase economic opportunities in the country’s emerging tourism destinations.
The targeted Zambian tourism destinations include the Liuwa Plains National Park near Mongu in Western Province, Kasaba Bay in Nsama District in Northern Province and the source of the Zambezi River in Mwinilunga District of North-Western Province.
This is a crystallisation of the World Bank’s support for Zambia’s thrust to improve its tourism sector and its go-green effort.
In 2023, the then World Bank Country Manager for Zambia, Sahr Kpundeh, said his institution was pleased to support Zambia’s push towards a green growth strategy in which a nature-based economy was key.
“Diversified, nature-based economic activity and private sector investment will create jobs and protect nature in the areas targeted under the project,” Dr Kpundeh said.
He elaborated on the following great expectations of the Bank from the Project in Zambia:
•Increased economic opportunities and revenue from tourism and the broader nature-based economy sector by improving the enabling environment, engaging key stakeholders, financing key basic infrastructure, and providing matching grants to communities for investments in the nature-based economy.
•Enhanced sector governance through investments in regulatory reform and building the capacity of core sectoral agencies.
•Increased international and domestic tourism sources, improved accessibility, lengthened stay for tourists, diversified tourism product offerings, and increased sector contribution to the economic development of the country.
•Increased access by women-led entities to business advisory services like finance for them to benefit equitably from the Project; and
•Strengthened national-level institutional capacity for participating ministries through a variety of capacity-building activities and programmes.
The targeted main beneficiaries of the project, according to Dr Kpundeh, are local communities, nature-based community enterprises, and private sector entities within the emerging tourism destinations.
And most importantly, the Green, Resilient and Transformational Tourism Project is aligned with Zambia’s national priorities as outlined in the Eighth National Development Plan (8NDP) and Vision 2030.
In part, the 8NDP specifically underscores the government’s commitment to unlocking the tourism sector for economic transformation and job creation.
In Zambia, the nature-based economy generally spans many sectors and offers multiple environmental, social, economic, and fiscal benefits.
But Dr Kpundeh noted, however, that more effective natural resource management was needed to improve economic opportunities for local populations and community incomes.
This could be done by addressing the poor accessibility, high poverty levels, and environmental degradation which currently hamper the development of many potential tourism areas in Zambia.
Dr Kpundeh noted that Zambia was endowed with globally significant natural assets which offered an important opportunity for sustainable development.
“Currently, natural resources make up 40 percent of the country’s wealth and are a strong basis for its economic growth and strategies for poverty reduction,” he said.
And what could be better economic growth and poverty reduction strategies than the already unfolding robust government agenda to concretize tourism as a key pillar for social and economic development in Zambia?
Actively, the World Bank is in full support of this economic diversification pathway Zambia is hotly pursuing through heightened tourism sector development and promotion.
Says the Bank’s Report: “Furthermore, the decline of commodity prices and other external shocks necessitate economic diversification. Zambia needs to unlock new green economic pathways that capitalize on its natural assets and their comparative advantages.”
Undoubtedly, the World Bank’s effort to help bolster the country’s tourism sector dovetails with other positive indicators for Zambia’s tourism.
This year, the Association of British Tourism Agents (ABTA) has listed Zambia among the top 10 tourism destinations in 2024, making it the only tourism destination from the mainland Africa on its listing.
This is according to the ABTA’s ‘Destinations to Watch in 2024’ Report published on its official website on January 5, 2024.
“Zambia offers nature at its finest with a wealth of national parks teeming with wildlife, mighty waterfalls, and friendly vibrant cities. For animal lovers, very few countries compare – with almost a third of the country set aside for wildlife,” the ABTA said on its website.
Other listed destinations are Albania, Aruba Island (Caribbean), Crete Island (Greece), Extremadura region (Spain), Mauritius, Saxony (Germany), Shopshire (England), The Tyrol (Austrian-Italian), and Vietnam.
The data cited in the Report was from ABTA’s Holiday Habits Research for 2023 which was conducted in the last two weeks of August 2023 by The Nursery Research and Planning organization of Britain.
Meanwhile, the ABTA made the announcement ahead of the ‘Sunshine Saturday’, one of the busiest days of the year for holiday bookings in Britain, where the organization also launched its Report.
The 2024 listing means that Zambia is among the 10 destinations the ABTA intends to inspire British holidaymakers to head for.
This is crucial as the holidaymakers decide where they will be heading off on holiday in 2024.
Graeme Buck, ABTA’s Director of Communications, explained: “We know that many people are looking for inspiration and new suggestions of where to go, so our team of experts at ABTA has put together a list of 10 ‘Destinations to Watch’ which offer varied and memorable experiences around the globe. Some are a little unexpected, and all are well worth a visit. The destinations showcase the amazing range of experiences that our world offers to holidaymakers.”
Indeed, coming at the tail end of a period that has seen tourism numbers over the last years wobble, these are positive indicators for Zambia’s tourism industry.
The Africa Nature-Based Tourism Platform has disclosed that Zambia lost 654 tourism jobs during the COVID-19 outbreak which occurred between 2019 and 2022.
This disclosure is contained in the Platform’s ‘Country Summary Report’ it produced on Zambia post-pandemic after surveying 70 tourism industry enterprises in the country.
According to the Report, out of the 2,059 workers the 70 surveyed enterprises had before the COVID-19 outbreak, only 1,405 were still working in 2022 – hence the 654 lost jobs.
The Platform is an innovative initiative that aims to support communities and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) involved in nature-based tourism across Eastern and Southern African countries.
It serves “as a vital channel for COVID-19 relief and recovery funding to support nature-based tourism in Africa”.
As the local and international goodwill support to tourism steadily unfolds, Government has already laid a strong foundation by allocating K769.5 million to the tourism sector in the 2024 national budget.
In his 2024 budget presentation speech in Parliament last year, Finance Minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane, indicated that this year’s allocation to the tourism sector was predominantly for the development of infrastructure.
Dr Musokotwane added that the allocation was also for the marketing, wildlife management and development of tourism products; the rehabilitation and upgrading of the Mansa, Mbala, Mongu, and Solwezi Airports; and the development of the Chinsali, Choma, and Kasaba Bay Airports.
Evidently, government, the private sector, the international players are all playing their part in enhancing the development and promotion of Zambia’s beautiful but largely virgin tourism potential.
And with President Hakainde Hichilema as their Chief Marketing Officer for Zambia Limited, the onus is on every Zambian citizen and entity to become brand ambassadors for marketing Zambia’s tourism potential.
And the starting point should be every Zambian citizen to become a ‘tourist attraction’ unto themselves by adopting a patriotic work culture, mindset and attitude that supports efforts of international players like the ABTA to attract more foreign tourists to Zambia.