Malawi rakes meagre $27m from tourism

Malawi raked in $27 million from tourism in 2011, far much below what other economies in the region fetched due to high costs, the World Bank report has indicated.

The World Bank report on tourism in Africa released last week notes that the sector—one of the priority sectors under the Economic Recovery Plan (ERP)—contributed 4.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and blames the low receipts to the country high costs.

In the region, Kenya received $752 million from tourism, Tanzania $1.26 billion, Botswana $513 million, South Africa $7.6 billion, Mozambique $190 million, Zambia $146 million, and Zimbabwe raked in $294 million.

In terms of comparative costs, an average a round-trip flight to Malawi from New York, according to the report, costs $2 290, to Indonesia $1 644, India $984, and a flight to China costs $1 173.

But the ERP which is the Government’s economic blueprint notes that to promote the industry, Government will undertake in product development, tourism marketing and promotion, and institutional reform and capacity development.

Malawi Tourism Association executive director Sam Botomani, responding to a questionnaire on the sector earlier in an e-mail, noted that the country has a number of challenges that relate to tourism including limited financial resources which makes it impossible to market Malawi aggressively.

“We need to improve the facilitation of visitors such as visa costs and availability and procedures. We also need to improve tourism infrastructure including airports, create an inductive and competitive climate for the tourism industry and improve the international, regional and local air connectivity,” said Botomani.

The World Bank report notes that an understanding of how tourism works, what it is worth, and why it is important is crucial to achieving “destination readiness” for tourism.

“Countries scaling up their tourism industry, like Malawi and Zambia, often need to convince policy makers that tourism is of value. Despite the impressive multipliers and track record that tourism has in sub-Sahara Africa, the economic and social importance of the sector is widely underappreciated,” reads the report in part.

The report further notes that Malawi has the highest cost for tours and flights per night at $611 while tours and flights to Madagascar cost $208 per night, Ethiopia $464, China $166, Indonesia $533, and India $326.

Tour operators, according to the report, were asked to identify the countries they thought had the greatest potential for tours over the next five years and the highest ranked countries were Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania while Malawi, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Zambia were described as emerging destinations.