By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –

THE tourism sector is a sleeping giant whose potential has not been utilised in Zambia.??If well-managed, the sector can contribute to the socio-economic development and job creation to compete with countries like Kenya which have developed the industry.
There is, fortunately, hope in Zambia if all the developmental goals put in place by Government are effectively implemented.
One of these       interventions is in the revised Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP) which will focus on tourism as one of the priority areas for investment.
The sector has numerous forward and backward linkages to various sectors of the economy hence the need to harness its potential.
Currently, the sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is about three per cent, justifying the need to prioritise it.
Tourism, as an industry, is seen to offer opportunities for revenue generation in both the private and public sectors, while stimulating economic activities that deliver conservation, social and financial benefit to the communities.
Tourism and Arts Minister Jean Kapata says Zambia’s tourism sector offers massive untapped investment opportunities and has attractive policies and regulatory frameworks to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDIs) into the country.
In the Industrialisation and Job Sreation Strategy of 2013, tourism has been defined as a priority sector, with the target to create 300,000 jobs by 2016.
The Zambia Development  Agency (ZDA) says this represents significant growth from the tally of 57,337 jobs in the tourism sector as of 2013.
With the Victoria Falls, which is one of the the seven wonders of the world being in Zambia, the country stands out as one of the prime tourism destinations in Africa.
Together with a wealth of natural tourism assets such as waterfalls, lakes and rivers holding about 35 per cent of Southern Africa’s total natural water resource, wildlife protected areas occupying about 10 per cent of the country’s total land area, and a tropical climate, Zambia ranks high among tourism destinations.
Tourism Council of Zambia (TCZ) chairperson Felix Mulenga notes that the sector has been posting significant growth over the last three years.
He said given the requirements and investment, the tourism sector will be able to contribute more than 10 per cent to the country’s GDP.
Mr Mulenga says one of the factors that hindered growth in the sector is the demand of the yellow fever card by South Africa from every tourist having to travel through that country.
This was a major stumbling block to tourist attraction within and outside the region.
Fortunately, following reduced cases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Zambia, a yellow fever-free zone.
Subsequently South Africa and Namibia waived requirements for travellers from Zambia to possess the yellow fever certification whenever entering the two countries.
Equally, the connectivity has continued to be the major challenge hindering growth in the sector and the perception that Zambia was an expensive destination compared to other countries in the region.
On a large-scale, Mr Mulenga says investment in terms of tourism marketing both international and domestic centre have continued to receive large budgetary allocation.
The delayed amendment of the Tourism and Hospitality Act of 2007 has, however, continued to delay prospective investment in the industry.
Amidst these myriad of challenges, Zambia was able to record about 950,000 international tourist arrivals in 2014 representing an increase of 3.4 per cent.
The country recorded a total number of 946,969 tourist arrivals in 2014 compared to 914,576 in 2013.?According to Tourism and Arts Permanent Secretary Stephen Mwansa, out of the total number of visitors in 2014, 23 per cent came from Europe, America and Asia while 77 per cent were from within Africa.
“Further the total number of visitors to national parks increased by six per cent from 77,282 in 2013 to 81, 962 in 2014,” Mr Mwansa said.
The trend in Zambia has been fructuating and in 2012, recorded 859,088 tourists arrivals in the compared to 920,299 recorded in 2011.
This was a 6.7-per cent decrease.??For some time now, one of the objectives of Zambia Tourism Board (ZTB) has been to exceed a milestone of one million international arrivals.
For Mr Mwansa the increase in the number of tourists’ arrivals last year can be attributed to the introduction of the Kavango Zambezi Trans-Frontier Uniform Visa (KASA UNIVISA) between Zambia and Zimbabwe.??He identifies the other factors for the increase in the flow of tourists to lifting of the yellow fever requirement and expansion of the budget airline domestic routes in the country which has improved connectivity.
“We want the tourism sector to fulfill its objective of creating more than 300,000 permanent jobs. We are creating an enabling environment so that the sector can make greater impact on our GDP and the country’s economy as a whole,” Mr Mwansa said.?He says this is because Government has realised the importance that this sector can play in job creation as well as poverty-eradication in the country.
Mr Mwansa says Government is working at raising Zambia’s tourism profile by reviewing policies and legislation in the tourism sector to create a favourable climate for investment.
The Government has started opening offices for tourism promotion in countries such as South Africa, France, Spain, Britain and the United States of America (USA) to spur tourist inflows into the country.
The tourism board is also planning to open a joint office with the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry in China to strengthen Zambia’s economic relations with that country.
The Government will establish the tourism Multi Facility Economic Zone (MFEZ) in the tourism capital Livingstone to spur the growth in the sector.??The ministry has since applied to Commerce Trade and Industry, which will work with its counterpart in Ministry of Finance to establish the MFEZ.
According to Mr Mwansa, the Government wants to establish an economic zone in Livingstone to make it easy for people to invest in the area by providing sector incentives in hospitality industry and other sectors.
The idea is to widen the products that Zambia has and give the country competitive advantage.
He says a lot of economic activities has slowed down in Livingstone because of the move of provincial capital to Choma, hence the need to establish an MFEZ so as to change Livingstone’s profile.
“You may wish to know that we have hinged heavily on the Victoria Falls and wildlife, but there are a number of people around the world who have no falls and do not have game parks, but yet attract more tourists than we do,” he says.