‘Tourism a fast-track for job creation’
PROMOTION of the tourism sector is a great opportunity for Zambia to fast-track employment and wealth creation especially in the rural population, Tourism and Arts Minister Charles Banda has said.
Mr Banda said tourism has become one of the world’s most important sources of investment, providing Government with substantial revenues.
Zambia, he said, must take advantage of the vast natural resources and use it to improve the living conditions of people.
The minister was speaking in Kitwe at the launch of the grading exercise of accommodation standards at Garden Court Hotel.
Garden Court Hotel was awarded three stars.
Mr Banda said Zambia was pregnant with abundant tourism resources which were not exploited.
He said the ministry of Tourism alone could not develop the industry unless everyone cooperated in growing the industry .
He said explained that the main objective of grading accommodations was to improve the standards in the accommodation subsector of the country.
Mr Banda said tourism had firmly established itself as one of the largest industries in many countries and the fastest growing economic sector in terms of foreign exchange earnings and job creation.
He said his ministry needed the partnership of local government and he was optimistic that launching the grading system on the Copperbelt would prompt tourism to start taking root in the province.
Mr Banda said tourism was a top creator of jobs and should therefore take centre stage in the agenda and programmes of all provincial administrations.
He also said tourism was a top income generator which would impact on the most vulnerable of the country’s population.
Meanwhile, Zambia Tourism Agency (ZTA) Board chairman Peter Jones said Zambia was richly endowed with tourism resources, which needed to be exploited to the full.
He saifd there would be no benefits from tourism if there was no corresponding critical mass investment into marketing, product development, regulation and development of appropriate institutional structures. Mr Jones said he was delighted to have been given the opportunity to implement the new grading programme.
This was because the absence of the accommodation grading for most part of the history of Zambia’s tourism sector robbed the segment of a critical ingredient for the success of the industry.
ZTA Chief Executive Officer Felix Chaila said at the same event that K5 million has been collected through the tourism enterprise listening programme.
Mr Chaila said the agency had made a number of achievements since the functions were moved to ZTA by Act number 13 of 2015 by Parliament.
He said the agency has so far received 20 applications for the grading of hotel facilities which was overwhelming and encouraging as it was an indication for quality and excellence.