What the President actually told Parliament
* Serious copy and paste error on a government Facebook page followed by international community
* The whole statement is a contradiction as wrong words were applied because its about domestic tourism marketing strategy
* The impression is the President meant that the strategy is for local Malawians to travel within Malawi
By Duncan Mlanjira
The Department of Information posted on Malawi Government Facebook page highlights of President Lazarus Chakwera’s State of Nation Address (SONA) he presented in Parliament on Friday but the one on tourism has been edited.
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The President said: “We have also continued to engage with tourism enterprises and hospitality industry players to offer incentives for the development of special packages for Malawians to boost local tourism as part of efforts to implement the Domestic Tourism Marketing Strategy.”
But the Department of Tourism made some serious error of copy and paste by editing the highlight: “We have also continued to engage with tourism enterprises and hospitality players to offer incentives for the development of special packages for Malawians to boost rAs a result of all these efforts, international arrivals have increased by about 64 percent from 2021, reaching approximately 708,000 in 2022, ourism of efforts to implement the Domestic Tourism Marketing Strategy.”
The whole statement is a contradiction as wrong words were applied because if its about domestic tourism marketing strategy the impression is that the strategy is for local Malawians to travel within Malawi.
Notice where the copy and paste error is from ‘to boost rAs a result’
In his SONA, the President meant the government is providing incentives for Malawians to boost local tourism and incentivising local investors cannot immediately boost international travellers into Malawi to such a level of over 708,000 tourists in 2022 — a figure quoted without an official source.
In his response to incentivising tourism stakeholders, South Africa-based Don Consultancy Group Chief Economist, Chifipa Mhango said in a statement yesterday that Malawi Government must encourage and incentivise more development of world class accommodation infrastructure to cater for the anticipated increase in number international travellers into Malawi, to which data reflects 44% of the total in 2021 use Hotels/Lodges/Inn as accommodation.
“Several incentives can be formulated here, for example, the concentration Lake Shore development has been in Salima and Mangochi, yet there are best views in areas of Chiweta in Rumphi and Usisya in Nkhata bay areas.
“Government can then designate some of these unexploited areas with incentives such as any local ‘private entity that develops a 5-Star standard hotel in these unexploited designated areas will have a tax break of, let’s say, three to five years during the first five years of operation.
“That can then assist the private entity to either repay the loan or support in further reactional facilities development like cable rides to the hills of Chiweta like the Cape Town Table Mountain famous holiday tourist attraction.
“In the longer run, Malawi Government will gain more towards international tourism expenditure and as the entity start paying its taxes, after the tax break period.
“Scenery or views is one the strongest attraction of holiday/vacation travellers or tourist,” he had said in his official statement from his base in South Africa after analyzing the SONA.
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