Maximising shire river tourism potential

The upper Zambezi River in Zambia is full of tourists’ activities, including water sports and game viewing.

Boat cruise in luxurious three decker cruisers is the order of the day.

While visiting Livingstone Town in Zambia on duty, High Court judge Michael Mtambo joined a team of visiting journalists to Zambia who took a sunset cruise on board African Queen-a three deck cruiser plying trade on the Zambezi River.

Mtambo sat on the top deck with a drink in one hand while watching the giant elephants drink from the river, giraffes eating tree leaves, the little kudus and hippos enjoying their natural habitat.

And the hype of it all came when we watched the golden sunset, which Mtambo described to us journalists, as ‘simply amazing’ and the boat ride as ‘breathtaking’.

Mtambo described the boat cruise on the Zambezi River as something that Malawi can do at a larger scale with proper planning to attract tourists.

“Malawi needs to invest in infrastructure as Zambia has done to attract tourist,” he quipped.

Mtambo has a point. Zambians are maximising the tourism potential of the upper Zambezi River, which runs through Mosi oa Tunya National park where a single person can pay up to $90 (about K45 000) for a boat cruise.

But Malawi’s largest river, Shire, which is the only outlet of Lake Malawi, is left to waste with minimal activities.

When one takes a walk along the river bank at Liwonde Township, what one sees are two or three pathetic looking small boats docking at Hippo View Lodge. Yet the river is Malawi’s most important natural resource system.

Despite the river passing through Liwonde National Park with its beautiful scenery including game, there are limited tourists’ activities happening on the river.

The park is the country’s most prolific wildlife park and is typically African with wildlife species including elephant, rhino, hippo, buffalo, hyena, zebra, eland, waterbuck, impala, sable, warthog, crocodiles and birds.

Once in a while, small boats set out from Liwonde heading north or from Lake Malawi heading south.

These small boat safaris are offered to observe the wildlife in the park and an ideal backdrop for a sundowner on the river at a small scale.

The mighty Shire River begins at Samama in Mangochi and travels south for 402 kilometres through the country, with many rivers and streams flowing into it, before joining the Zambezi River in Mozambique.

Going through the Malawi Tourism guide website Shire River activities are even missing as part of attractions in Malawi.

Apart from just having tourists and guests have lunch in restaurants overlooking the river when in Liwonde, an active boat cruise meandering up the river while watching game can do.

Lack of investment

According to the recent United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) report, Malawi tourism contributes K60 billion to the gross domestic product (GDP).

The report says 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.

Industry experts fault government for lacking initiative to attract investors in the sector.

“There is also lack of infrastructure to support tourism,” the expert said.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) in its travel and tourism report rated Malawi poorly with air transport infrastructure being one of the worst in the world.

Out of 141 economies surveyed for competitiveness, Malawi ranked 126 on health hygiene, air transport infrastructure and tourist service infrastructure.

Malawi Tourism Council (MTC) chairperson Stan Phiri concurs that Shire has a lot of potential to boost tourism, but is not utilised fully.

He compares Shire River with Nile in Egypt, which he says is ‘a beehive of activity and never goes to sleep’.

“Look at how vibrant and full of life upper Zambezi River in Zambia and even Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe are more attractive. Malawi can do the same by investing in nice, durable and bigger boats,” Phiri says.

Phiri says by so doing the country can realise more revenue from tourism.

He suggests that the country can do better by focusing on investing in infrastructure in the tourism sector.

Investing in Shire

But how can Malawi focus on Shire River and give it a life?

Even though all eyes are on government, what the Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture Kondwani Nakhumwa says is that government is encouraging investors in the tourism sector.

Nankhumwa says government has plans to court investors on providing luxury floating boats with sleeping facilities to take up to 300 guests.

He says the plan has already been sold to prospective investors, therefore, the projects might start soon as there was overwhelming response.

“There is a Zimbabwean company which showed interest to start assembling boats in the country, which will be cruising on Lake Malawi and Shire River respectively,” he stated.

He said if investors will honour their promise to invest, the future looks bright for Shire River. n