By Tiyanjane Mambucha
Lilongwe, April 25, Mana: President Dr Lazarus Chakwera has emphasized on the need for Malawians, within and outside the country, to collectively help sell Malawi to others saying the country has a lot to offer to the world.
Chakwera made the call on Thursday at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe when he opened the 2024 Takulandirani Malawi International Tourism Expo (MITE).
The President said, it is a collective responsibility to sell Malawi to others as people’s daily living and activities speaks more about a country.
''What do you do or say about your country as you live every day? Through what you do or say you represent your country. The responsibility to sell Malawi is of each one of us. Whatever we do we are selling this country,'' said Chakwera.
Minister of Tourism, Vera Kamtukule, said MITE has been yielding results since its inception in 2017.
She said the country is doing extremely well in tourism.
''The numbers in terms of traffic of those coming to Malawi is increasing. The waiving of visas for 79 countries has also helped. Our role now is to increase in product development so that people visiting Malawi should have things to see or experience,” said Kamtukule.
Through MITE unique tourism products and services are showcased to hosted international travel buyers, media and the general public, an initiative aiming at advocating for local support and foreign investment in the tourism industry.
The fifth edition of the expo, which will run from 25th to 27th April, 2024 is dedicated to exploring the importance of tourism as one of the Malawi’s key drivers to economic growth, under the theme '#ipatsemoto, everything tourism'.
Chairperson for Malawi Tourism Council, Justine Zinkambani, commended the Chakwera led administration for adding tourism as a priority within the economic sector of the national development.
''Identifying tourism as a priority within the ATM strategy, and the Malawi 2063, underscores the potential of tourism to drive the country's social economic development,” he said.
Malawi is working on an ATM strategy focusing on investing in Agriculture, Tourism and Mining which contributes significantly to the economic growth.
Tourism sector is Malawi’s third largest source of foreign exchange after tobacco and tea. This sector alone contributes about 6.7 percent to the Malawi’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
