Tourism Minister Rodney Sikumba says China’s vast population provides a huge tourism market for Zambia.
Mr Sikumba says it is for this reason that his Ministry has chosen to partner with the Chinese government for strategic collaboration that will boost the Tourism industry.
He adds that the two countries have consequently coined 2024 as the year of tourism and culture.
The Minister who was speaking shortly after a tour of Lusaka National Park with visiting Chinese Minister of Veterans Affairs Pei Jinjia, further explained that Zambia and China have agreed on some waivers to encourage more Chinese tourists in Zambia.
Under the deal, the two countries are strategising on having direct flights between China and Zambia as well as the removal of visa restrictions for Chinese tourists.
Mr Sikumba also shared that the two countries have agreed for China to help Zambia with infrastructure in the tourism sector and has called on all players in the hospitality sector to improve on service delivery in order to meet the demand that will be created by the growth in tourist inflows.
Chinese Minister of Veterans Affairs Pei Jinjia has concluded his four day visit to Zambia
We can also work with our African brothers and sisters….lets also market tourism to our African countries it shouldn’t always be the West or the East…lets market Zambian Tourism in Bukina Faso…Nigeria…Egypt…Comoros…Chad…Angola…Sudan etc…in short lets market Tourism from Cape to Cairo…
The reason why you encourage tourism is so that you can get the kind of money which allows you to buy the kind of things you do not have and cannot have. Our African brothers should be able to visit already. The Chinese bring Yuan, with which we can buy things from China. The people you need less and less of are Westerners who produce nothing except their useless money. Whenever they come into your country, all they dream about is how to exctract your stuff from you, by hook or crook
Africans don’t have that kind of disposable incomes…the average Zambian makes $1300 per yr ,a Nigerian about $1100 per yr ,an Egyptian $3200 , a Kenyan $2300 ….so you see? Tourism potential there is very minimal and the add the high ticket prices compared to other world regions.
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Chinese are not big on wildlife viewing……….
They mostly eat all animals……..
Introducing them to our national parks spells disaster , one way or the other……….
From rhino horns for their medicines to finding use for any other animal parts,……..
The wildlife is in trouble………
Double your efforts in europe instead
When are we ever going to be really independent. I cry night and day on what we have done to God to always depend on the Europeans and Chinese. … to go to these countries is as difficult as going through the eye of the needle.
Kikikikikiki! You should have gone “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a Zambian to go to Europe”
Any waivers that you get into must be reciprocal. A Chinese visa is relatively cheaper than those of African countries. I don’t understand why we still need a yellow fever vaccination certificate to travel to some countries as if yellow fever is still a pandemic. Last time I was mistreated by a Zambian at the front desk of the Chinese embassy in Lusaka. When I lost my cool, a yellow appeared from nowhere and asked if I wanted ordinary or express. I opted for express, he got my passport and money and asked me to return the following day. That’s how I got my visa!
@Enka
Please stop being misled by the Western media….they’re people with good money in Bukina Faso…Kenya…Egypt..Nigeria…lets start focusing on doing business with fellow African countries….and like what Spaka said ” the Chinese will eat all our Animals “…
At the rate the UPND is going in there bid to raise Forex……we should not be surprise to learn the Victoria falls has been sold. That intent to sell Luapula, Muchinga and Northen provinces to the VIET… WAS AN EYE OPENER!!!
GRZ should try to learn from our neighbors Namibia and South Africa on how to handle tourism. Planes full of tourist land in Windhoek very week from Europe and America. What is it that we are not doing?
We’re like a beautiful woman who has failed to find a husband.
@Maria, we’re not serious with almost everything we do. We’re a country where our president thinks he’s doing us a favour and that we should appreciate that he’s the first to meet Prince Charles who himself is pretending to have succeeded his mother. Expos are initiated and attended not by tour operators but government institutions who get rewards not for good performance but for spending a lot of money to decorate their booths. It’s like standing in a bucket then attempt to lift yourself
Imagine! Yet Namibia is a desert. And we have the Mosi oa Tunya Falls, Lake Bangweulu, Luangwa paradise Lochinvar heaven etc etc etc
So Namibia has a local/SADC incentive for visiting their tourist attractions in addition to being very meticulous about their tourist facilities. What is an ordinary day camp in Namibia would be thousands of dollars in Zambia. It is NOT about having a lot of money, it is about COLLECTING the money that there is. Ifyabupuba lyonse…
ROADS, THEFT, POLICE, PRICES ??
need More ??
They are after your resources t make money for themselves the Chinese won’t be coming in lage numbers but the rest of the world will come so the are using Zambia to make money for Chinese business men
They will come in as tourist and start business
As that is one thing they are good at.or they
Will go into mining.
China has scrapped visa requirements for tourists from over 90 countries including zambia in a bid to boost tourism in that country. We need to reciprocate if we also want the numbers to increase.
So these waivers are to ” to encourage more Chinese tourists to Zambia”?
And what about Zambian tourists to China???
What about Japanese women ba muso.
The earth station are US Embasey belong to Mukuba Pension House. How many words does it take to raise a red flag. Ievile hooverdam
Hooverdammeam
Too much Corruption and stealing at Livingstone City council….the mayor has turned Livingstone City Council into her personal cash cow….how are we going to develop Zambia like this…
Get rid of nonsensical roadblocks. Stop charging border fees like your lives depend on it. Enforce strict cleanliness and put up affordable lodge facilities. Strategically enable riverside facilities for local and foreign tourists. Most important for goodness sake: Grade gravel roads and TAR your highways and other access trunk roads. Oh! And what is this nonsense of humps on highways!?