In the face of the ever growing anti-smoking lobby, nearly every administration that has governed Malawi since the dawn of plural politics through a June 14 1993 National Referendum has ranked tourism as a potential game-changer.
For decades, tourism has been described as a low- hanging fruit that could boost foreign exchange earnings to complement the contribution of tobacco, the country’s main export crop.
It is a fact that Malawi is endowed with beautiful places, but what is needed is to create enablers that should drive traffic in such destinations.
But then, why is it that despite the acknowledgement about its importance, Malawi has struggled to grow its tourism sector?
In her public lecture titled ‘Solidifying the gains: Everything. Everyone’ delivered in partnership with Mzuzu University (Mzuni) last month, Minister of Tourism Vera Kamtukule, PhD, mentioned failure to coordinate marketing of tourism as the biggest challenge hampering the growth of the industry in the country. She cited a research conducted by Mzuni in collaboration with her ministry.
Earlier this year, Parliament passed the Tourism Industry Bill that is expected to enhance marketing through establishment of a Tourism Development and Marketing Fund, Malawi Tourism Authority and Malawi Tourism College.
Perhaps the law will help in changing things as the poor communication and linkage between public and private sector players on destination marketing has been costly.
During the 2025 Malawi International Tourism Expo in April stakeholders in the tourism industry also urged the Ministry of Tourism to exploit technology and target global tourism power houses to amplify the three-day initiative to achieve its marketing objective.
Identifying influential players in global tourism and targeting them every year is one strategy some industry players believe can help to increase the tourist arrivals in the country. Many times, such influential players make recommendations that motivate others to sample a destination.
Tourism alongside agriculture and mining plus manufacturing are at the heart of the current administration’s ATM+M strategy to stimulate economic recovery and growth. Tourism is also prioritised in the Malawi 2063 (MW2063), the country’s long-term development strategy due to its contribution to socio-economic development, job creation and poverty reduction.
Recently I was drawn to reflect on the quotation “numbers don’t lie, people do” widely attributed to Ernie Lindsey, an American novelist whose novel Sara’s Game became a USA Today and Amazon Kindle bestseller. This was upon seeing World Tourism Council data showing revenues that Malawi and her neighbours generated in 2023 from international tourist visits. The gap between us and our neighbours is so wide, I must say.
During the year under review, Zimbabwe reaped $215.1 million (an equivalent of K377 billion), Zambia generated a staggering $901 million (about K1.6 trillion) and Mozambique raked in $327 million (about K573 billion) while Malawi had a paltry $35.5 million (about K62 billion). But by 2028, Malawi’s tourism earnings are projected to rise to around $268 million.
In 2024, Malawi was projected to earn $42.9 million (about K75 billion), a 20.7 percent jump, but still a far cry from the neighbours. Not sure though how much of the earnings practically trickle into the Malawi economy as some players undertake all payment transactions abroad in facilitating tourist deals. This is yet another area worth looking into.
Now, why do we fail to attract more tourists and favourably compete with regional neighbours such as Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe and others?
Malawi needs $600 million (about K942.6 billion) annually to bring in fuel, but generates just around $1 billion (K1.75 trillion) in forex every year against an annual import bill of $3 billion (about K5.2 trillion).
Tobacco, the main contributor in the foreign exchange basket, contributed $395 million (K691 billion) while in 2023 it was $282 million (about K493.7 billion). Now compare the tobacco earnings to Zambia’s tourism revenue, it is almost three times what our so-called green gold generated.
If our neighbours, with more or less the same natural resources like us, are minting gold from tourism, I believe we can also do the same if we do certain things right. In the fresh water Lake Malawi, we have a huge advantage if it can be backed with some infrastructure developments, especially access roads, airports and attractive tourism products that can be well packaged.
MW2063 identifies tourism as a crucial sector for national economic growth; hence, making it one of the anchors of the urbanisation pillar.
To pluck the juicy fruits from tourism, Malawi needs to invest in good road network to tourism destinations such as Nyika, Lake Malawi and others, airports and review some taxes to make the destinations attractive.
Countries such as Kenya and Tanzania, which reap more from tourism, have for long promoted themselves as Big Five safari destinations in apparent reference to the presence of elephants, buffaloes, lions, leopards and rhinos. Malawi too can promote itself as the newest Big Five destination on the continent after the restocking of Majete Wildlife Reserve in Chikwawa and Liwonde National Park in Machinga.
It is good news that now Malawi has the Tourism Industry Act and is consistently hosting the Malawi International Tourism Expo to lure tourists.
These are steps in the right direction but need to me matched with action on the ground, including improved road network and general accessibility to local destinations.
