Zambia’s untapped tourism potential & its prospects for a green economy

Zim­b­ab­wean schol­ar Sham­iso Nyajeka makes a strong pitch for the devel­op­ment of a respons­ible, sus­tain­able, and eco­nom­ic­ally-inclus­ive travel & tour­ism industry in Zam­bia, where deep poverty per­sists des­pite a luc­rat­ive min­ing tradition. 

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. 

[Thanks to Jim Butcher for invit­ing Ms Nyajeka to write a “GT” Insight.]

Nestled at the inter­sec­tion of cent­ral, east­ern, and south­ern Africa is a coun­try known for its abund­ant high-grade cop­per reserves. 

Account­ing for about 6% of the world’s known cop­per resources, Zam­bia is a world-renowned pro­du­cer and export­er of the ver­sat­ile metal. 

For cen­tur­ies the people of Zam­bia have been trad­ing in cop­per. Indeed the min­ing of cop­per, coal, cobalt, emer­alds, and oth­er sub­ter­ranean treas­ures con­tin­ues to be a driver and sup­port for the Zam­bi­an eco­nomy, but not without leav­ing deep scars. 

Also see Edwin Magio’s “GT” Insight
“Africa must put com­munit­ies, con­ser­va­tion at the centre of its recovery”

Des­pite export­ing large volumes of cop­per each year, Zam­bia still has one of the highest levels of poverty in the world. 

Ordin­ary Zam­bi­ans have paid the most for min­ing’s nar­row eco­nom­ic con­tri­bu­tions. Spillages of harm­ful chem­ic­als and emis­sions of tox­ic gases into the envir­on­ment have com­prom­ised their com­munit­ies’ health and that of their crops and livestock.

In the cur­rent era of Glob­al Goals (the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals), ensur­ing sus­tain­able devel­op­ment has become an import­ant part of the Zam­bi­an government’s agenda. Yet it is quite clear that with an eco­nomy heav­ily depend­ent on cop­per min­ing, this is a mam­moth task. 

While agri­cul­ture is also an import­ant sec­tor of Zam­bi­a’s eco­nomy, it is increas­ingly under threat of cli­mate change and volat­ile com­mod­ity prices. Moreover, real­ising agri­cul­ture’s full poten­tial requires heavy invest­ments in equip­ment, tech­no­lo­gies, and chem­ic­als, all of which present sus­tain­ab­il­ity challenges. 

Also see James Nadi­ope’s “GT” Insight
“How bees, trees, & tour­ism reduce human-wild­life con­flict in Uganda”

Facing the chal­lenges, the gov­ern­ment has the man­date to steer Zam­bia towards a devel­op­ment tra­ject­ory that meets the needs of cur­rent and future generations. 

The solu­tion lies in altern­at­ives, diver­si­fy­ing the eco­nomy away from the tra­di­tion­al sources of growth to more sus­tain­able possibilities. 

Wealth is about hav­ing options and Zam­bia has just the right blend of resources to give her a more sus­tain­able option for devel­op­ment; an option that pro­tects rather than des­troys the envir­on­ment and human life. 

Zam­bia is not just rich in min­er­als, it is home to one of the most untamed envir­on­ments in the world pro­tec­ted in 19 nation­al parks and 34 game man­age­ment areas. The land is largely unspoiled, sparsely pop­u­lated, and a remind­er that nat­ur­al san­ity still exists on earth, with boun­ti­ful wild­life and vast bod­ies of life-giv­ing water. 

Zam­bia is the source of the mighty Zam­bezi, one of Africa’s most import­ant and power­ful rivers which sup­ports mil­lions of live­li­hoods across south­ern Africa before drain­ing into the Indi­an Ocean. Zam­bia boasts two oth­er major rivers, four big lakes, 18 water­falls, and many hot springs. 

Also see Tan­ner C Knor­r’s “GT” Insight
“How run­ning water changes lives in Tanzania”

As if these nat­ur­al assets were not enough, with more than 70 tribes, Zam­bia has a rich cul­tur­al her­it­age. Des­pite their diverse lan­guages, tra­di­tions, and cus­toms, Zam­bi­ans are bound by the essence of Ubuntu; a philo­sophy embraced by the Bantu people who inhab­it south­ern Africa, east­ern Africa, and parts of cent­ral Africa. Ubuntu loosely means “humane­ness”, although there isn’t a pre­cise Eng­lish trans­la­tion of the word.

The people of Zam­bia are the country’s greatest asset, with their warm hearts, bub­bly per­son­al­it­ies, and respect­ful attitudes.

Tourism: An extraordinary option for Zambia’s development

Such a wealth of nature and cul­ture provides an extraordin­ary option for the country’s devel­op­ment: Tourism. 

Tour­ism is a source of sus­tain­able devel­op­ment that does not require a heavy invest­ment in machinery or chem­ic­als, unlike min­ing and agri­cul­ture, and is less at the mercy of cli­mate change than agriculture. 

It is also an eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment option that pro­tects the envir­on­ment. And, unlike min­ing, tour­ism does not leave a leg­acy of poor health caused by ill-man­aged toxins. 

Tour­ism cre­ates oppor­tun­it­ies both for envir­on­ment­al con­ser­va­tion and the pre­ser­va­tion of cul­tur­al her­it­age. It is an option that can cre­ate wealth from pro­tect­ing and shar­ing the country’s nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age with the rest of the world.

Wild­life alone presents vari­ous oppor­tun­it­ies for tour­ism; safari, hunt­ing, and pho­to­graphy. Some 30% of Zambia’s land area has been reserved for wild­life. This trans­lates to over 22.5 mil­lion hec­tares. These vast tracts are home to Africa’s ‘Big Five’ — lion, black rhino, leo­pard, buf­falo, and ele­phant — indic­at­ing a healthy ecosystem.

Even though the coun­try is already a lead­ing wild­life tour­ism des­tin­a­tion, vis­it­a­tion is still con­cen­trated in a hand­ful of large nation­al parks. There is huge poten­tial to involve the oth­er parks and game man­age­ment areas that are scattered across the coun­try in the devel­op­ment of tourism. 

Oppor­tun­it­ies for adven­ture tour­ism are also plenty giv­en the many water­falls dot­ted across the coun­try, the greatest being the majest­ic Mosi-oa ‑Tun­ya, which the coun­try shares with her south­ern neigh­bour Zim­b­ab­we. Also known as the Vic­tor­ia Falls, Mosi-oa-Tun­ya is the world’s most spec­tac­u­lar water­fall. It is one of the sev­en nat­ur­al won­ders of the world and is inscribed on the UNESCO list of World Her­it­age Sites.

Bub­bling up from Zam­bi­a’s pristine nat­ur­al envir­on­ment are more than a few hot springs. Not all of them are avail­able for bathing but they still provide a spec­tacle and are believed to have heal­ing powers. Vis­it­ors can bathe in the Kapishya and Chiny­un­yu hot springs loc­ated in the North­ern and Lusaka provinces respectively.

Being a land­locked coun­try, Zam­bia does not have con­ven­tion­al ‘beach’ resources, yet even that is not a bar­ri­er. With its stretches of white sand and abund­ant sun­shine, Sam­fya Beach is a less­er-known nat­ur­al attrac­tion along Lake Bangweulu.

The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has made people more con­scious of their health and cre­ated oppor­tun­it­ies for well­ness tour­ism. With vast nat­ur­al and unspoiled land­scapes, Zam­bia is an ideal des­tin­a­tion for those seek­ing solitude, relax­a­tion, and over­all men­tal and phys­ic­al well-being. 

Oppor­tun­it­ies for cul­tur­al tour­ism in Zam­bia are innu­mer­able con­sid­er­ing the country’s diverse cul­tur­al her­it­age. For example, there are sev­er­al tra­di­tion­al cere­mon­ies held in dif­fer­ent parts of the country. 

Kuom­boka is one of the largest in this region of Africa. It is per­formed by the Lozi people at the end of the rainy sea­son and cel­eb­rates the relo­ca­tion of their king from the flood plains to high­er ground. The col­our­ful cere­mony attracts thou­sands of loc­al and inter­na­tion­al spec­tat­ors to wit­ness the king and his entour­age mak­ing their way along the Zambezi. 

Oth­er major fest­ivals include the N’cwala and the Umutomboko which take place in the East­ern and Luapula provinces respect­ively. There are of course many others.

There are oppor­tun­it­ies for rur­al tour­ism too, wherein vis­it­ors can exper­i­ence tra­di­tion­al life­styles of Zam­bi­a’s Indi­gen­ous peoples and those who work on the land. 

And what would Zam­bi­an cul­ture be without its tra­di­tion­al cuisine; meals and snacks pre­pared using indi­gen­ous meth­ods and ingredi­ents? Food tour­ism presents anoth­er pro­spect for diver­si­fy­ing the economy. 

Also see Adenike Ade­bay­o’s “GT” Insight
“Deli­cious, nutri­tious, pre­cious: Nigeria’s ‘Slow Food’ tour­ism potential”

Urb­an cul­ture is also an inter­est­ing attrac­tion in Zam­bia. City mar­kets are always a hive of activ­ity selling almost any­thing from han­di­crafts to fresh fruit and veget­ables, hot indi­gen­ous snacks, and an array of pre-loved clothes.

Zam­bia offers uniquely con­trast­ing cul­tur­al exper­i­ences from unspoiled rur­al set­tings to con­tem­por­ary upmar­ket shop­ping malls, food out­lets, and hotels. Lusaka, Zam­bi­a’s cap­it­al, is home to inter­na­tion­al brands such as KFC, Radis­son Blu, and Hilton hotels. Mov­ing around the pristine, chic areas of Lusaka, one could almost for­get they are in a coun­try in which much of the pop­u­la­tion lives in poverty.

Tourism: If not in Zambia, then where?

If all of Zam­bi­a’s nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al resources are not per­fect ante­cedents for the devel­op­ment of a vibrant tour­ism industry, noth­ing else is. Of course, hav­ing abund­ant attrac­tions is no guar­an­tee for reap­ing the bene­fits of tour­ism. It takes much more than nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al assets to have a suc­cess­ful and sus­tain­able tour­ism sector. 

In Zam­bia, as else­where, there is a need for prop­er plan­ning and man­age­ment, skilled human resources, and a col­lab­or­at­ive effort between gov­ern­ment, investors, ser­vice pro­viders, and loc­al com­munit­ies. Without such an approach the inclus­ive bene­fits of tour­ism may nev­er be sus­tain­ably realised.

Agree? Dis­agree? What do you think? Share a short anec­dote or com­ment below. Or write a “GT” Insight of your own. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion about travel & tour­ism because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): Sun­set over the Luang­wa River, a trib­u­tary of the Zam­bezi, by Ian McGrory (CC0) via Unsplash. Zam­bia word­mark by syafrani_jambe (CC0) via Pixabay.

About the author

Sham­iso Nyajeka is study­ing for a Mas­ters in Tour­ism Des­tin­a­tion Devel­op­ment at Dalarna Uni­ver­sity in Sweden. Ms Nyajeka worked in the travel & hos­pit­al­ity sec­tor in her nat­ive Zim­b­ab­we from 2003. Since 2019, Sham­iso has been liv­ing and work­ing in Zam­bia. She is pas­sion­ate about ser­vices mar­ket­ing and the sus­tain­able devel­op­ment of tour­ism in south­ern Africa.