Malawi hotels, pricing and tourism

Tourism is among the nine priorities within priorities outlined in the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy II (MGDS II) expected to contribute to sustainable economic growth in the country and expand or diversify Malawi’s foreign exchange earnings.

In 2013, former president Joyce Banda said it was government’s wish to make Malawi among the top 50 countries in the world as best tourist destinations by 2015. Then, according to the 2013 Travel and Tourism Competitive Index compiled by the World Economic Forum, Malawi ranked 124, a drop from 121 in 2011.

Based on that index, Malawi was above 15 countries in the world whereas in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) region, only Mozambique, Madagascar and Lesotho ranked below Malawi.

From these statistics, one can easily tell that Malawi has a mountain to climb in as far as attracting tourists is concerned.

More than once, the Malawi Tourism Association (MTA) has outlined several challenges negatively impacting on tourism growth and made recommendations many of which have not been implemented.

For example, MTA proposed facilitation of issues such as the green and red routes at Malawi international airports, the granting of visas at ports of entry, the synchronisation of policies that affect tourism as well as the reorganisation of the Department of Tourism to create a specific body to market Malawi.

Key factors that make an effective tourism destination include availability, accessibility and quality of information as well as the level of development of a country’s infrastructure.

In recent months, we have seen adverts on international television channels such as CNN promoting Malawi as a tourist destination. That is an encouraging development, but there is need to do more, especially in the area of infrastructure.

Here, what comes to mind is the poor state of the road between Liwonde and Mangochi as well as the stretch between Machinga Hills and Liwonde for those travelling from the Southern Region to the resort town of Mangochi.

The road is full of potholes. Ironically, its rehabilitation has always been mentioned in national budgets year-in and year-out. The recently constructed Mangochi-Monkey Bay Road has also developed potholes which road authorities seem to neglect their repairs.

Banda’s successor, Peter Mutharika, in his first State of the Nation Address in June this year, also acknowledged the fact that tourism, wildlife and culture have the potential to significantly contribute towards the country’s socio-economic development through increased foreign exchange earnings, employment creation and the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

The President rightly observed that Malawi is unable to fully realise the potential of the sector due to a number of factors, including inadequate infrastructure, non-aggressive promotion and marketing strategies and stiff competition from other attractive tourist destinations globally.

However, when all is said and done in terms of improving infrastructure and all, it is also important to consider pricing of services offered in most of the country’s hotels and resorts.

Much as it is a fact that hospitality industry operators have more overhead costs, in many cases, the pricing of their services borders on total madness.

For instance, what justification is there for a tourist (local or foreign) to pay close to $3 (about K1 100) for a 330-millilitre bottle of local lager beer whose recommended retail price is K400 and sells at an average of K700 in most upmarket clubs? In the same vein, imported lager beers and ciders going at K2 200 per bottle?

And on accommodation rates, surely, some of the rooms for which hotels demand above K45 000 for a night’s sleep and breakfast do not match the pricing as well. Elsewhere, many premium hotels give residents value-added services such as free/complementary copies of local newspapers which most of our hotels do not do.

With the hotel grading system, it is my expectation and that of several Malawians that one day we will see a change that will encourage us to save and patronise the hotels.

Even in the case of hotel chains, I do not think the “one-size-fit-all” pricing makes sense. Each unit should have pricing based on its grading which entails level of services expected. Why should prices at a two-star resort be almost similar to those of a four-star unit?