National Tourism Policy to guide tourism growth

By NDUBI MVULA, Lusaka.

“I believe that effective implementation of this policy will enable my Ministry facilitate the transformation of the Tourism, Arts and Culture sector into a viable and sustainable industry capable of significantly contributing to the GDP, job creation and poverty reduction.”

These are the sentiments Minster of Tourism, Arts and Culture Charles Banda shared with the nation through the stakeholders that attended the launch of the 2015 National Tourism Policy at Government Complex on May 31 2017.

Indeed it had to come and be in place for the smooth guidance and planning for the development of the tourism sector in the country.

Mr Banda categorically stated that the policy document is meant to position the tourism sector as one of the country’s major contributors to job creation and foreign exchange earnings.

This goes without saying as it spells out the roles of the all players in the sector to facilitate close cooperation with the line Ministries and Agency in Government as well as a broad cross-section of stakeholders in the industry.

“The purpose of the revised National Tourism Policy is to provide a strategic framework for the sustainable development of tourism in Zambia so that the sector realises it full potential,” he said adding that the updated policy ensures that the business environment is ripe for players in the sector and for the country to compete effectively on an international tourism market.

But one would wonder as to what has been happening for the policy only to be launched now and not yesterday when the sector’s rich and pristine nature has been there for grabs.

Mr Banda says the first attempt to review the Tourism Policy of 1997 was made in 2011 in order to take into account new developments in the tourism industry. However, the process stalled during the run up to the September 2011 Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government election only to resume later after they had passed.

The tourism sector has in the last decade undergone considerable changes both at local and global levels to warrant review of the national policy.

In 1997, the first Tourism Policy was adopted and during the period under review it is noted that Zambia has tremendous natural and cultural heritage to share with its citizens and the world at large.

It is noted that at the moment, Zambia is not full leveraging its tourism potential for the benefit of the country when it is well known that these resources can offer a lot of opportunities for the local social and economic development, especially if developed and managed sustainably through careful tourism planning and partnerships with civil society and the private sector.

However, in the new global tourism environment, Zambia is emerging as an attractive tourist destination with huge potential to exploit the opportunity hence the need for a refocused policy that also has the role of ensuring global and regional shares of Zambian tourism increase.

The 2015 National Tourism Policy further stipulates that at national level the need to revise the policy has arisen from the shift in focus of tourism not only being viewed as a source of foreign exchange earnings but also as a catalyst for job creation which is a major developmental objective of the Government according to the World Bank Report on Tourism Development in Africa (2013).

Tourism is recognised as one of the fastest growing sectors in the world.

The Policy notes that the Zambia economy has undergone massive transformation since the introduction of liberal economic policies in the early 1990s which has resulted into greater involvement of the private sector in the economic development of the country.

The economy is further characterised by progressive diversification where tourism is contributing significantly both in terms of composition of output and exports. It further states that the national economy has been characterised by a steady economic growth which needs to be increased and sustained if the economy has to create increasing employment opportunities for a growing youthful population as the national demographic profile shows.

That said and done, the Policy is organised according to the Government’s standard policy guidelines and it provides a situation analysis, the Vision for Zambian Tourism, Rationale for the Policy, Guiding Principles upon which the Policy is based, the Objectives of what the Policy intends to achieve, the Measures for achieving the Objectives and Implementation Framework.

These will in the next series be delved into. The National Tourism Policy is now here and it is time to get up and have all the cylinders firing for national prosperity.