By Julius Phiri –
KAZONGA Enterprise Limited director Evans Ngoma says the tourism sector has potential to improve the country’s economy if well marketed internationally.
Mr Ngoma who is in Luapula Province for a local tourism visit said this during the week.
He said Zambia was a good tourism destination which only needed to be fully marketed to bear the economic and social benefits it had the potential to produce.
“I never knew that Samfya is this beautiful. If extensively marketed to the outside world, this would attract huge investment,” he said.
Mr Ngoma called on the Ministry of Tourism and Arts to engage companies to market Samfya, Lake Bangweulu and Mweru Wantipa on the international market as tourist destinations as well as areas of investment.
He said there was need to produce documentaries on the wide array of Zambia’s tourist attractions like Samfya and others that less well known than the Victoria falls and expose them to the international market.
“I think the people who may have been doing documentaries on tourism in Zambia have got limited ideas. We need private-owned individuals or media houses to compete and come up with pieces to market Zambia’s tourism within and abroad,”Mr Ngoma said.
He said there was also need to put up a modern airport to support the activities in the province.
Mr Ngoma’s sentiments echo those of Tourism and Arts Minister Charles Banda when he addressed an investment forum in Spain where he touted the potential untapped opportunities in Zambian tourism sector.
Speaking in Madrid, Spain, at the 3rd Zambia-Spain Investment Forum organised by the Zambian Embassy in France in collaboration with the Madrid Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Minister said Zambia had unique heritage sites and monuments with over 100 waterfalls and beautiful rapids making it a land of magnificent waterfalls and adventure destination.
Mr Banda said Zambia’s tourism sector contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown from 3.4 percent in 2013 to 4 percent in 2015.