By CHARITY MOONGA-
TOURISM and Arts Minister Jean Kapata has called for increased local tourism promotion through improved packaging.
Launching the domestic tourism campaign in Lusaka yesterday, Ms Kapata said it was unacceptable that many Zambians did not know how rich the country was in terms of the tourism products it had.
“So many Zambians have not been to any of our 20 national parks. Even worse, we still have Livingstone residents who have not yet seen the Victoria Falls,” she said.
She said for domestic tourism to effectively take place, it was critical that many tourism products were developed throughout the country.
Ms Kapata said Government was determined to provide an enabling environment in which the tourism sector would thrive.
Ms Kapata said the domestic tourism market would only respond favourably if the packages were attractive and affordable.
“We need to retain the market of domestic tourists and minimize the loss of potential domestic tourist,” he said.
She explained that enthusiastic and passionate domestic leisure tourists would act as ambassadors and ultimately attract more foreign tourists to the country.
Government wanted to see more competition in the tourism sector to provide increasingly better products at more competitive prices.
“Qualitative products and services will in turn assist the country attract an increased inflow of international tourists,” she said.
Ms Kapata appealed to the corporate world to promote consumption of leisure and tourism products by presenting family holiday packages to deserving employees as incentive rewards.
She further implored the financial sector to promote domestic tourism such as saving schemes for holidays as the practice was for other countries.
Ms Kapata further urged all Zambians with the financial capacity to seriously consider investing in the tourism sector in Zambia.
She said there was great untapped potential for investment in the tourism sector in Zambia and Government was willing to facilitate investments in terms of land and other requisites.
She cited traditional ceremonies, galleries, museums, craft markets and cultural villages, among others as some of the areas of tourism that could be exploited.