THIS week, I will focus on the importance of domestic tourism in sustaining Zambia’s economy amidst economic turbulence.
To start with, the Zambian economy has recently been facing challenges arising from external and domestic factors.
On the external side, a slowdown in economic activities mainly in China and the Eurozone, coupled with the strengthening of the United States dollar has led to a drop in commodity prices and a fall in investment inflows.
In the foreign exchange sector, the exchange rate of the Kwacha against the US dollar has been marked by a depreciating trend due to a combination of global and domestic factors.
On the domestic side, the poor rainfall pattern, particularly in the 2014/15 agriculture season has led to a fall in crop production and a severe decline in electricity generation.
Clearly, the various economic turbulences will continue and this is why the Government has announced its resolve to diversify the country’s economy as one of the measures to mitigate the challenges.
In his address to the nation last month, President Edgar Lungu said he had taken practical steps to walk-the-talk of diversifying the Zambian economy away from its over-dependence on copper.
“If this necessity has merely been talk when times are hard, let me assure the nation that we are moving decisively to transform Zambia into an agro-based economy,” President Lungu said.
Besides agriculture, tourism is another sector which has potential to transform the country’s economy amidst economic challenges.
In this regard, domestic tourism is a key component that could sustain the sector and create job opportunities.
This is because local tourists are available throughout the year to travel and spend money within their countries without being disturbed by external threats.
For instance, the global economic crisis of 2008 to 2010 had a dramatic and negative impact on foreign tourism as international travel suffered steep declines with both leisure and business segments.
While international travel was suffocated, the domestic tourism segment was given ‘oxygen’ and it thrived amidst the turbulences.
A number of destinations globally managed to offset their international in-bound tourism losses during the period of recessionary decline by focusing on their domestic tourism offering.
With clarity and confidence, strategic plans put the lens on home-grown traveller potential, encouraging nationals to explore their own countries, taking a much-needed break within their own borders.
In South Africa, which is Zambia’s largest trading partner in Southern Africa, domestic tourism in that country has historically been and remains the largest contributor to tourist volume, with 79 per cent of all volume in 2010 derived from domestic tourists.
The Zambia Tourism Agency (ZTA), which previously operated as Zambia Tourism Board (ZTB), also launched the domestic tourism campaign in 2014 which has so far yielded positive results.
Currently, more than 60 per cent of visits to tourism and heritage sites in Zambia is done by the local people. (To be continued next week)
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