By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –

THE Tourism Council of Zambia (TCZ) has partnered with the Government and private sector to enhance the marketing aspect in the tourism industry.
TCZ president Alexander Munthali said in an interview in Lusaka at the weekend that TCZ wanted to map up collaborations with the Government through the Zambia Tourism Board (ZTB) and the private sector     to better market the country’s tourism industry.
“We recognise the potential in the tourism industry, but we feel that it has not been properly harnessed and the private sector has not been involved       in the marketing aspect,” Mr Munthali said.
“So we want to map up collaborations with ZTB and the private sector to see how best we can market the sector both locally and internationally.”
Mr Munthali said the council had since set up some committees  comprising chief executive officers (CEOs) from Southern Sun in Lusaka, Zambezi Sun International in Livingstone, Drug Hotel and Lower Zambezi, among many others.
He said some of the CEOs had great potential in marketing wildlife and the council had also formed a liaison committee which would engage the Government on policy issues, training and capacity building.
Mr Munthali said the council believed that once the Government addressed some of the challenges the industry was faced with, tourism would be better-placed to contribute significantly to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
He said the sector would further aid the Government to realise Zambia’s strategy on industrialisation and job creation.
Currently, the sector’s contribution to GDP is about three per cent.