2nd OPEN LETTER TO HON. CHARLES BANDA, MINISTER OF TOURISM AND ARTS
THE Northern Tourism Circuit initially comprised of three provinces namely Luapula, Northern and Muchinga but now we hear part of Eastern Province has been added to it.
Hon Minister, I have always said and will continue saying that tourism is a highly competitive industry which should be driven by people with the passion for it. Short of this, the country will continue recording low arrivals in terms of tourists.
Your first step should be to accommodate every opinion and views on how we can strategically place ourselves as a country in the region.
Section 4 (2) of the Tourism and Hospitality Act of 2015 provides that “the minister shall in the development of policies in accordance with subsection (1) put in place measures to;
(A) Maximize the application of sustainable tourism and sustainable development in planning and developing tourism in priority areas, protected areas and designated areas for rural and urban development
(B) Commission the development of tourism master plans, circuit and corridors
(C) Designate sites for tourism development based on local, natural and cultural sensitivities , competitive advantage, market demand and private sector interest.
The Mbala – Kasaba Bay corridor has several competitive advantages, because of the proximity and the concentration of tourism and heritage sites within reach, making it easy for visiting tourists to easily connect from one tourist attraction to another at no cost or little cost. This is what most tourists want. I am therefore humbled to have this privilege to engage the Hon minister on how we can accelerate tourism development in the Northern circuit. Obviously, one of the ways of doing this is to identify areas with concentration of tourism sites/heritages, and what immediately comes to my mind is the Mbala – Kasaba Bay corridor which has several tourism and heritages sites within reach. as can be seen from what is depicted below