Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure, or business purposes, usually of a limited duration.
Tourism is commonly associated with trans-national travel, but may also refer to travel to another location within the same country.
The world tourism organisation defines tourism as people travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes.
Zambia, the land of the legendary African walking safari, Victoria Falls,  the wild Zambezi River, abundant wildlife,  and raw wilderness,  all in one friendly country.
Blessed with awe-inspiring natural wonders, an abundance of wildlife, huge water bodies and vast open spaces, Zambia offers unforgettable holidays exploring the real Africa.
Acknowledged as one of the safest countries in the world to visit, Zambia’s welcoming people live in peace and harmony.
And here, in the warm heart of Africa, you will find some of the finest Safari experiences on the planet, including face to face encounters with nature at its most wild.Spectacular waterways provide adrenaline-thrills or a leisurely playground of activities for all ages.
Seventeen magnificent waterfalls, apart from the spectacular Victoria Falls, provide ‘cascade followers’ an adventure into the remote undeveloped rural areas where a taste of village life can be experienced.
Zambia is also blessed with more than 20 national parks under the management of Zambia Wildlife Authority and more than 70 game reserves management under private ownership.
With all these abundance of natural resources the country has still remained poor however with proper management of our natural resource and heritage sites, the country has the potential to be one of best tourist destinations in Africa.
Tourism under the ministry of Tourism and Arts together Zambia Wildlife Authority has the potential to generate almost half of Zambian revenue collection hence contributing to economic growth and poverty reduction to most local people.
I was overwhelmed as an environmentalist when the former minister of Tourism intervened in the matter where the minister of Lands offered a mining license to an Australian company to mine in the lower Zambezi national park without the approval of the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA).
Lower Zambezi national park is one of the biodiversity hot spots in the country with a huge potential to attract tourists and foster job creation especially to local people.
Apart from providing tourism attraction, protected areas acts as carbon sinker while many unprotected areas are deforested due to high demand for charcoal for many poor Zambians who are unable to get on zesco prepaid power.
Moreover, intense agricultural practices have also contributed to deforestation in these unprotected areas hence the need for conservation.
This however has driven the deforestation level in the country hence increasing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which causes global warming.
Allowing the mining activities puts the park at risk and reducing tourism earnings which benefits the government and the local communities in the area.
My heartfelt plea to all my fellow patriotic citizens of  Zambia is that  lets change our mindset of depending only on the mining sector as a source of government revenue and job creation, moreover open pit mine uses a lot of machinery which reduces on the number of people employed.
We need to diversify and hence the government needs to improve other sectors such as the tourism industry.
Tourism sector under the Tourism Board of Zambia and ministry of Tourism and Arts should come up with efficiency and effective policies to advertise tourist attractions which include national parks such as the lower Zambezi.
The government should also partner with Zambia Wildlife Authority in improving infrastructure development in national parks in order to attract more tourists to our country.
However, there is need to improve more attractive destinations through institutional and infrastructure improvements and by strengthening marketing efforts by the Zambia Tourism Board.
Last year the Zambian government co-hosted one of the high profile general assembly United nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) which attracted a lot of delegates all over the world and this gave Zambia an advantage in terms of tourism exposure.
Furthermore, the government generated revenues.
Hosting the UNWTO gives us a plus as a country in terms of conserving our natural resources and sustainable use.
Our tourism sector if managed well can create a lot of jobs for local communities and the government can generate more revenue which can be used in different developmental projects which include construction of community schools, hospitals, water pumps and even bursary in universities and colleges.
If we look at Tanzania, it has less than 20 national parks but the revenue that is generated by the tourism sector in that country has continued to grow over the last few years and, by the end of the 2008 calendar year, the Tanzanian government expected to have generated between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion and in 2009 the revenue was in the range of $1.35 billion.
In addition to the growth in the revenue that the tourism sector also experienced the increase in the number of tourists coming to Tanzania.
The question is, how Tanzania has been managing its natural resources and tourist attractions and able to generate almost half of the country’s income?
Tanzania has continued with promotional efforts in order to effectively market the country’s tourist attractions, which include national parks and animal reserve centers such as the Serengeti in the north and selous in the southeast.
Tanzania under the Tanzania national parks (TANAPA) recently announced the 3rd TANAPA media awards for the best newspaper articles, radio or television programs that create awareness as well as public involvement in the promotion of domestic tourism as well as conservation initiatives in the national parks.
Programmes like these allow full participation especially of local communities who live adjacent to protected area and encourage them to conserve and in sustainable use of resources. These are some of the programs that Zambia should adopt.
Kenyan government gets its revenue from agriculture sector and followed by tourism sector.
Wildlife-based tourism is a major source of revenue for communities and conservancies in Kenya. Support from NRT helps conservancies to develop long-term agreements with tourism investors and promote tourism in northern Kenya.
Conservancy and bed-night fees generated more than 40 million Kenyan shillings (US$475,000) in 2012.
This was used to pay for rangers’ salaries, educational bursaries and other ventures identified as a priority by local communities.
Even Namibia whose vegetation type is semi arid is booming in terms of tourism because of diverse organism such as wildlife and other natural attraction which Zambia has as well.
The Namibian Government has recognized that tourism is an important sector which generate employment, particularly in rural areas where most tourism occurs hence aimed to develop one of its fastest growing export industries with its focus on tourism.
For example the export earnings from international visitors and tourism goods were expected to generate 15.6 per cent of total exports (US$ 650.6 million) in 2008 and were expected to grow in nominal terms to 22.6 per cent (US$2,092.8 million) by 2018.
This is a call for every Zambian citizen, stakeholders, environmentalists and the government as the mother board to divert our thinking from mining to other sectors such tourism industry.
The tourism sector has huge potential to generate thousands of job opportunities and contribute to the economic growth and poverty reduction.
Share with us your experiences, comments and recommendations. Send emails to wildlifemgtsociety@gmail.com  OR brysonsompa@yahoo.com