Industry players cautious on local tourism recovery

Malawi Tourism Council (MTC) says the country’s Covid-19 high-risk ranking will further affect the speedy recovery of the tourism sector.

The World Health Organisation and the United States Centres for Disease Control still ranks Malawi as a high-risk country for Covid-19, a status which is expected to be held until end-2022.

However, government is banking on the Safe Travel Stamp, which was granted to Malawi by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) based on the sector’s level of preparedness and compliance to international tourism and travel health protocols.

In a written response on Monday, MTC chairperson Johns Malili said the ranking will retard growth of international traffic of tourists coming in the country and further affect the speedy recovery of the industry.

He said: “Malawi Tourism Council is aware that domestic tourism is currently doing well as the local tourists are appreciating the precautions put in place by operators to avoid the spread of Covid-19.

“Malawi still relies on international tourism to have the country’s industry to move.”

Malili said a lot of economies, especially in Europe, are opening up fully for tourism activities because of the higher percentages of people who have taken Covid-19 vaccines.

On January 19, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention moved 22 nations into its level three or high-risk category, which applies to destinations that have had between 100 and 500 cases per 100 000 residents in the past 28 days.

Previously, Malawi was on level four, or very high risk category.

The development comes at a time the sector has also been among the hardest hit, with travel and tourism contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020 falling to 3.3 percent or about K210 billion. This is a drop from 6.7 percent or about K420 billion in 2019.

In an interview on Tuesday, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Wildlife Michael Usi said while the ministry is banking hopes on rollout of vaccines, the Safe Travel Stamp will help the industry to utilise the recognition in all their marketing channels to promote the country globally.

“My ministry has granted the same stamp to operators that qualified and applied for the Safe Travel Stamp which operators use to promote their products,” he said.

While admitting that international arrivals have declined since April 2020, Usi said domestic tourism has been the biggest cushion for the industry.

“Our plans for the next financial year is to do more domestic marketing in conjunction with the private sector and local councils,” he said.