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Zambia Tourism
Marketing Campaign Targets USA Excerpts from a speech by the Honorable Patrick
K. Kalifungwa, MP Minister of Tourism. Environment
and Natural resources at the official Launch of the
visit Zambia 2005 campaign. These two major events present Zambia with
opportunities to enhance its marketing and
promotion of its tourist attractions both locally
and abroad, the prime objective of the campaign is
to increase total tourist arrivals by 400,000 in
2006, and sustain the figure in the years
thereafter, you may wish to know that last year the
country received 589,000 visitors. This huge task will only bear fruit if we work
in collaboration, the campaign will largely depend
on you our colleagues from the media to push the
awareness both locally and abroad, some of our
media colleagues are correspondents for major
international press and we are calling upon you to
expose the campaign through these channels too. I wish to advise you that the Zambia national
tourist board and the private sector through its
umbrella body - the tourism council of Zambia, are
working together on this campaign, through the
partnership, major activities are being planned for
2005 that will mark official celebrations for the
centenary and the 150 years; these will be revealed
to you when preparations have advanced. While the celebrations will focus on Livingstone
and the Victoria Falls, we are not limiting
ourselves to only promoting these two areas but
also other areas such as South Luangwa, lower
Zambezi and Kafue National Parks, we have already
approached the tourism council of Zambia to come up
with 'must buy' packages that will attract
Livingstone visitors to extend their holidays to
the other tourist areas in the country. I wish to call for positive reporting in order
for us to achieve good publicity that will improve
the image of our tourism industry, I must reiterate
that the success of this campaign will largely
depend on you - the media. You know very well that the spin-offs from
tourism are very high and have multiplier effects
on our economy, during the campaign we expect to
achieve the following: I. positive image of Zambia II. increased revenues for both private
sector and government III. increased job creation - every seven
arrivals generates one job; IV, increased investment; and V. poverty reduction I wish to assure you of governments commitment
to the development of Tourism. I would like to
believe that you are already aware of the tourism
infrastructure development currently taking place
in various parts of the country. This, Friends, is
a sign of the seriousness government attaches to
improve the industry. I must say that the campaign
comes at an opportune time when the infrastructure
has generally improved, I am happy to confirm
governments commitment to the campaign and will
include the costs of marketing the visit Zambia
2005 in our annual budget submissions, Ladies and
Gentlemen, allow me to also bring to your attention
the fact that Zambia will next year host the 3rd
International Institute for peace through tourism
(3rd IIPT) Conference from 6th to 11th February in
Lusaka, the conference will bring about 300
delegates from all over the world. In this regard,
we need to prepare ourselves properly and market
out tourism for the benefit of the country. "The Visit Zambia 2005 program provides
excellent support for our new focus on the American
Market," says Charity Chanda Lumpa, Managing
Director, Zambia National Tourist Board (ZNTB). We
prefer quality tourism over mass tourism, as
Zambia's first concern is to protect our natural
resources, wildlife and culture. American travelers
to Africa represent high-end tourists who
are sensitive to both the local environment
and people." Zambia hopes to use the
Livingstone 2005 celebrations as
a "gateway" to draw in visitors to discover
the rest of the country's diverse and
exciting national parks and attractions. Mataa
Margaret Makungo, the recently appointed Director
of ZNTB in North America, said "our new
presence in the U.S. enables us to work more
closely with the American based tour operators
and assist them in increasing the number of
programs to Zambia and the length of stay in the
Country. Our goals are to develop both new
trade partnerships and promote Zambia as a multi
faceted destination that can also stand-alone."
More in our next edition and on the Zambia web
site, http://www.zambiatourism.com 3rd IIPT AFRICAN
CONFERENCE ON PEACE THROUGH
TOURISM Hotel InterContinental
Lusaka Lusaka. Zambia, Feb. 6-11,
200 "Tourism: Pathway to a
Peaceful and Prosperous Africa" Organized by the
International Institute for Peace through
Tourism (IIPT) in partnership with the Africa
Travel Association (ATA) and hosted by the
Zambian Ministry of Tourism, Environment and
Natural Resources. Email: africa@IIPT.org
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We
are here today to launch the Visit Zambia 2005
campaign. This year is a significant one for the
country. Livingstone City will be celebrating 100
years since Scottish missionary Dr. David
Livingstone first saw the awesome, mighty Victoria
Falls - "the smoke that thunders."