By MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA? –

THE Tourism Council of Zambia (TCZ) has said increasing funding to the? Zambia Tourism Board (ZTB) from the current US$4million to around?US$10 million will help increase tourism market campaigns to earn the?country foreign exchange.
TCZ chairperson Felix Mulenga said the increase would help the ZTB?compete favourably in the region where most of the counterpart?organisations had an allocation of around $10million, hence justifying?budgetary proposals for the upward adjustment in the 2015 National?Budget.
“Increasing the allocation to ZTB will enable it carryout a more extensive and impactful tourism marketing campaign both on the local and international markets.
This will enable the tourism board to undertake various promotional activities aimed at increasing the international tourist arrivals,” Mr Mulenga said.
Mr Mulenga said with the current funding, the international arrivals had grown by 6.7 per cent from 859,088 in 2012 to 914,576 in 2013.
“With the current level of funding we are able to attract close to a million tourist arrivals and just imagine if we had more resources we could increase the number of international arrivals and create more jobs and earn the country the desired forex,” he said.
He also called on Government to suspend duty on pre-booked safari tourism that would encourage tourism promotion.
“We also hope that the Government will look into reducing the company tax and suspend duty on pre-booked safari tourism in the 2015 Budget,” he said.