‘Twinning of Victoria Falls and Lake Malawi would benefit both countries’
WALTER MZEMBI, Zimbabwe’s minister of tourism and hospitality industry and chairperson of the Africa Commission under the UN-WTO Configuration, was in the country to sign the Malawi-Zimbabwe tourism memorandum of understanding. He tells BONIFACE PHIRI about what Malawi can learn from Zimbabwe’s tourism industry.
Q: How do you receive this tourism MoU between Zimbabwe and Malawi?
AWell, it was long overdue. In fact it should have been done way back in the federation days. When the visionaries of the federation thought about the idea of bringing us together they should also have thought about people to people diplomacy to be achieved through tourism, unfortunately, they brought political and economic integration only.
Q
What economic benefits are likely to be realised through this MoU?
A
In Zimbabwe, for instance, tourism which is a $1 billion economy, contributes 10 percent to the GDP and we are signposting a $5 billion tourism economy by 2020 and I am very positive that Malawi is also working on a similar vision. It starts with motivating the local tourism sector then you target the regional market.
Q
Tourism is vast, which areas should be the prime focus in this MoU?
A
I can tell you what I see now. In the near future there shall be the twinning of the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Lake Malawi. I dream of a day when we will connect these two iconic features with direct flights and provide incentives that would motivate people here to go to Victoria Falls and vice versa. That twinning is almost explicit without having to look far because the products are natural, what we need is simply to facilitate the movements and this will also help in regional integration. There is serious talk to integrate Malawi into the pilot phase of the project of twinning Zimbabwe and Zambia because Malawi is the third triplet of the federation and so it’s imperative that Malawi comes in immediately.
Q
Why is Africa having only four percent of the world tourism market share, where are we getting it wrong?
A
We are getting it wrong on the area of destination inaccessibility. Africa is inaccessible and it’s not connected. All you need to see this is look at the satellite map of Africa during the night and you will see that it remains as dark as we are described; a dark continent. You will agree with me that most African airlines fly during the day and in contrast Europe will be lighted up during the night. This demonstrates the lack of connectivity of African capitals and if we are to succeed we must start to visit each other, then foreigners will be attracted because they will see the confidence that we have in each other. My presence here is a vote of confidence in a product called Destination Malawi and it’s now up to Destination Malawi to spin my presence to the consuming market out there. We must express this confidence even in the midst of challenges. Last night I ate the most delicious fish in the world, Chambo, and Malawians are the most peaceful people. So you must sell these dividends which are so omnipresent in this country.
Q
Africa is rocked with so much political turmoil. How can tourism thrive in these situations?
A
First and foremost is our solidarity with each other in times of happiness and bereavement. You saw what Europeans did when they lost 12 people in Paris recently; they commanded 2 million people in the streets. But with Africans this doesn’t happen, we don’t express solidarity with each other and tourism can’t thrive in such an environment. Why are we able to get more people mourning than ourselves at our funerals but fail to show solidarity? n
