Players want more efforts to boost tourism

Tourism industry players believe a lot has to improve to boost the sector including air connectivity to world major cities and domestic road networks apart from visa waiver.

One of the itinerary operators in the sector, Innocent Kaliati, of Orbis DMC Limited made the observation four months after President Lazarus Chakwera announced the waiver of Visa fees to maximise the country’s tourism potential.

Kaliati said: “The major obstacle for us at the moment is air connectivity. Malawi doesn’t have direct flights from major cities in the world and this makes us an expensive destination.

“I am aware that the government is actively working to resolve this. Last week, I was part of a meeting organised by the Presidential Delivery Unit looking into ways of resolving the air connectivity issue. Commendable steps by the government and we now wait to see how best this will go.”

According to Kaliati, an assessment on the impact of the visa waiver will be done next year as the current itinerary bookings are from last year.

In an interview recently, Malawi Tourism Council executive director Memory Momba-Kamthunzi observed that tourists’ traffic has increased since the waiver of visa fees, but agreed with Kaliati on connectivity infrastructure challenges.

Momba-Kamthunzi said: “Information that we are getting from relevant institutions is showing that the number of tourists has significantly increased since the waiver was implemented. This, apart from increasing business to industry players, is also contributing to the country’s forex supply.

“Again, the removal of the visa fees is making it easier and faster for travellers as they are no longer involved in a long visa application process which was frustrating some tourists. 

“On the part of infrastructure, we still feel there is a need to improve our connectivity both for air transport connecting strategic cities around the world and domestic road network be it the M1 or other roads that link tourism centres.”

Earlier, the council’s chairperson Justin Dzinkambani said while the removal of visa requirements for some countries is a welcome development, Malawi has more work to do to boost its tourism sector.

Dzinkambani observed that Malawi will be competing with countries under Southern African Development Community (Sadc) who already removed the visas hence there is need for other incentives that could boost the country’s tourism.

He said: “It is a competition within Sadc and East Africa. We need to create specific interests for tourists to come to Malawi. But one of the setbacks is road transport infrastructure.

“I would look at possibly having the government to prioritise key areas in the tourism sector, for example, the M1 and the M5 and work hard to make a huge difference so that people can afford to travel as far as to our national parks and lakes without problems.” 

However, Minister of Tourism Vera Kamtukule is on record as having stressed that the visa waiver will make it easier and cheaper for tourists.

Said Kamtukule: “I hope that the relevant policyholders shall quickly move to the administrative arrangements so that this is effective in time for our tourism season internationally immediately after the rainy season.

“International visitations bring in foreign exchange and this will help as so many countries that we compete with either have cheaper visas while some have removed the visa requirement.”

The amended Chapter 15: 03 of the Immigration Act gazetted on February 7 2024 and signed by Minister of Homeland Security Ken Zikhale-Ng’oma showed that countries that have been added on the list include United States of America, United Kingdom, Russia, China, France and Italy.

The waiver means there are now 79 countries whose nationals are free to enter Malawi without visas.

In 2015, the Malawi Government imposed visa fees for all countries, with tourists coming to Malawi required to pay $50 (K87550) per single entry while a multiple entry visa for six months costs $150 (K262650). A multiple entry visa for 12 months costs $250 (K437750).