Marketing Africa magazine crew had a candid and insightful conversation with Hon . Vera Kamtukule , the Minister of Tourism , Malawi . The interview revolved around several issues starting off with how her illustrious career has prepared her for the role as Minister , through to how Malawi the country has positioned itself as a must-go-to destination for a discerning tourist . Before we navigate through the full Q & A , we narrow down to a section here-under taken from her presentation on 5th April 2023 entitled ‘ The Value of Tourism to Malawi : Raising National Consciousness ’, as well as a podcast she recently posted .
Introduction
We , at Marketing Africa , are sure that all of you have heard of Malawi and some could even have visited on business and probably a few for pleasure , for statistics indicate that 75 % of the visitors do so for business with 25 % for leisure . For those who have not visited , this feature is aimed at giving you a better understanding of the uniqueness of Malawi thereby giving a reason to visit . And even for those who have been there , another reason to go back and sample different places and enjoy a different experience .
We begin by looking at the importance of the tourism sector to Malawi and the efforts by the Malawian Government to leverage this sector . To give this section context we shall go back to history , for everything that happens in life is buried in history .
To Malawi , tourism is a critical pillar in the development of the country for a number of reasons . To start with , it has high job creation potential being labor intensive contributing immensely to improving living standards of the populace . Secondly when viewed as an export it is able to generate forex without suffering from trade barriers such as quotas and tariffs unlike other exports . Thirdly given its long supply chain it supports many industries including agriculture , textiles , transport and education .
In 2019 , before Covid-19 it contributed to 6.7 % of GDP , created 188,500 jobs and was third after Tobacco and Tea as a foreign exchange earner . Being awake to this fact the Government of Malawi wants to actively leverage this sector for the benefit of the country and its citizens . They are also awake to the fact that the sector is yet to realize its immense potential as it has been underleveraged all along .
The journey of the tourism sector in
Malawi has been 63 years in the making having started in 1960 and continues todate . In between there have been successes , challenges , false starts and unforeseen tragedies that have set back some of the gains . More importantly it ’ s a story of lessons learnt , a determined Government and above all a people who are resilient when facing challenges and at all times full of hope and perpetual warm hearts . That ’ s how they have been able to overcome the challenges thrown at them . We have divided this historical journey into four phases : 1960 to 1990 , 1990 to 2009 , 2010 to 2019 and 2020 till today .
We begin with the first phase : 1960-1990 . During this phase tourism was not well developed and the few tourists were from South Africa and expatriates working in Malawi . One barrier was the transport system was not well developed with rail and road being the main means of getting around . Coupled with this were lack of attractive and developed tourist sites as well as facilities such as decent hotels and conference facilities . There was also shortage of manpower specifically trained for this industry .
During this time the Government woke up to the fact that tourism could be useful to the country and they needed to deliberately invest in the sector . They began by the construction of hotels , inns and conference facilities . They also invested in upgrading Kamuzu International Airport and Air Malawi flying to London and Amsterdam . Malawi Institute of Tourism was launched as a government entity to develop the requisite skills to support the hospitality sector . These initiatives paid off as the numbers jumped from 50,000 in 1973 to 100,000 in 1989 .
The second phase has been described as the ‘ Golden Phase ’ as the numbers trebled to 755,000 in 2009 from 195,000 in 1995 . This can be attributed to several factors including the Government setting up the Ministry Tourism , waiver of visas from specific destinations and liberalization of the sector which attracted private players who invested in the industry .
The third phase from 2010 to 2019 also witnessed rapid growth as the number of tourists increased from 746,000 in 2010 to 978,000 in 2019 . This can be attributed to among others various interventions by the Government such as prioritizing Tourism as the main export service sector in the National Export Strategy , investing in Bingu International Conference Center
( BICC ), developing the National Tourism Policy and financial support from the African Development Bank .
The last phase from 2020 to-date is characterized by two unforeseen and devastating tragedies one being Covid-19 and the other , Freddy cyclone . Covid-19 reduced tourist arrivals by 79 % from 978,000 in 2019 to 198,000 in 2020 . Despite these the Malawi tourism industry is now on the road to recovery and majority of tourism businesses are back in operation though not at full capacity . International tourist arrivals have since increased from 198,000 in 2020 to 433,000 in 2021 .
As stated earlier the journey to grow the numbers is continuous and the Government working with the relevant stakeholders has learnt both from the successes and failures that they must be proactive and not ad hoc in driving the tourism agenda given the critical role it plays . The Government has realized it cannot go it alone and needs to carry along with it stakeholders such as Travel Agents , Tour Companies , and Airlines to ensure that all players sing from the same song sheet .
Despite these successes there are challenges that still have to be overcome if Malawi is to stop punching below its weight and awaken the sleeping giant within . The challenges have been identified are as follows :
Firstly , is the area of law as the sector has weak regulatory framework and more laws need to be passed . Even where the laws are in place , enforcement of the same has been wanting . Secondly is the lack of consistent and motivating incentives that would encourage local and international investors necessary for the growth of this sector . Thirdly are underdeveloped therefore underleveraged cultural assets such as heritage sites , monuments , religious shrines , festivals / events , arts and crafts , rock paintings . The fourth is inadequate supporting infrastructure and services such as roads , accommodation , entertainment and purpose-built cultural infrastructure .
Moreover , there is lack of direct flights to Malawi from most key source markets which increases the time spent travelling and in some cases the cost . Lack of infrastructure is a bottleneck as tourists need to access the sights and sounds that interest them quickly , conveniently and cost effectively .
In addition to the above four other gaps have also been identified . A critical one is in the