Cholera didn’t affect tourism - Minister
THE Cholera outbreak that had recently hit the country did not have an impact on the tourism sector, Tourism and Arts Minister Charles Banda has said.
Mr Banda told journalists at the Patriotic Front (PF) Interactive Forum in Lusaka yesterday that the tourism sector, which he said had been handicapped for a very long time, was thriving under the current government.
“Tourism under the PF government is on course, figures are all in the right direction. Even the cholera outbreak did not have an impact on the sector,” he said.
Mr Banda claimed that what was much publicised in the international media were the interventions government had put in place.
He said that tourist visits had tremendously increased with the current developments that the country had witnessed in the recent past.
Mr Banda also announced that government had set aside over K15 million for tourism marketing following the realisation that tourism as an economically viable sector.
He pointed out that tourism alone could create about three quarters of the much need 1 million jobs in Zambia if well nurtured.
Mr Banda said that when tourism was thriving in country, all the other sectors followed suit, creating the much-needed employment.
Meanwhile, Mr Banda said that medical tourism was also taking Centre stage in Zambia following the construction of specialised hospitals.
He said that the number of foreign nationals seeking medical services in Zambia was also increasing.
And Mr Banda announced that his ministry had collected about K10.1 million from the tourism development levy of the targeted K11 million in the first 9 months of its introduction.
He said that the collected funds were immediately being ploughed back into the sector for tourism development purposes.
Mr Banda, who is Kapoche constituency Member of Parliament, also boasted of a number of developmental projects being implemented in his area.
He said that contrary to public perception, he was actively lobbying, helping out and monitoring projects in his constituency.