Value chain analysis Zambia tourism

Zambia’s appeal to the European leisure visitor is based on its natural resources, including its unspoiled and varied landscape. In addition to the iconic Victoria Falls, Zambia has a wealth of rivers, lakes and waterfalls, as well as a rich and unique flora and fauna. These elements, combined with the country’s interesting cultural traditions, make Zambia a strong adventure and safari destination. Zambia is considered to be a safe and stable country with hospitable people. Zambia has the potential to appeal to the growing adventure, safari and eco-tourism segments from Europe, including the community-based tourism, birding, hiking and wilderness niches, and the main outdoor activity markets from Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, France and Scandinavia.

The Zambia Tourism Master Plan 2018-2038 (ZTMP), which provides the Ministry of Tourism and Arts (MoTA) with the blueprint for national tourism growth, is currently awaiting approval by the Zambian cabinet. The ZTMP reports that while there is significant scope for Zambia to increase its market share in tourism from Europe, the country is not capitalising on this opportunity. International arrivals grew between 2010 and 2016, but leisure tourists declined from 31% to 26% in the same period. In 2016, Zambia received fewer arrivals (956,000) than all of its neighbours, except for Malawi, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Europe, which is Zambia’s second largest source region[1], generates only 9% of those arrivals (88,300). The main European source markets are the UK (44%), followed by Germany (9%), the Netherlands and France (both 5%).

Zambia is primarily marketed as an ‘add-on’ to a southern Africa tour, consequently the average length of a leisure trip is only four nights. Leisure tourism relies heavily on Victoria Falls. Zambia’s holiday tourism sector, including tour operators and accommodation, is focused around Livingstone and the Southern Province. The ZTMP vision is to spread leisure tourism to other areas through phased development.

The key obstacles that restrict Zambian small and medium-sized enterprises from expanding sales to the European market are:

1. Marketing issues

1. Limited diversity of products that meet European consumer expectations, due to inadequate market intelligence amongst tour operators and suppliers
2. Limited variety of accommodation, in particular a lack of 3 and 4-star establishments
3. Poorly marketed cultural activities, especially community-owned and community-led tourism experiences
4. Only a limited range of destinations across Zambia that are connected and packaged
5. Lack of offer during the ‘green’ or wet season
6. Livingstone, with Victoria Falls, is losing its competitive position to Zimbabwe
7. Lusaka is dependent on business and meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE), having a very limited leisure offer
8. Customer service of poor and inconsistent quality, shortage of skilled workers and poor training
9. Low competitiveness on price due to high taxes, few direct flights from source markets and expensive internal flights. The short safari season forces players to generate profit within its six months’ duration, and pushes staff into unemployment for the remainder of the year
10. Weak brand positioning and destination marketing: low awareness of Zambia in outbound markets
11. Marketing activity in Europe is led by high-end safari lodges that have long-standing relationships with European tour operators, leading to a perception of Zambia as an expensive destination
12. Access to European marketplace: only a few inbound tour operators are active in this market

2. Sustainability problems

1. Limited sustainability practices with few accredited businesses and lack of community-owned and community-led activities
2. Local communities, which are critical to wildlife conservation, currently receive limited direct benefit from non-consumptive tourism

3. Enabling Environment

1. Lack of collaborative working
2. Weak public and private sector institutions
3. Low level of skills in the Ministry of Tourism and Arts (MoTA) to implement and monitor the ZTMP
4. Decentralisation of tourism development to weak regional administrations lacking tourism expertise
5. Poor system for tourism data collection and distribution
6. Poor regulations and enforcement
7. Limited ability to deliver management plans for national parks and game management areas

The table below lists key opportunities for CBI to help strengthen Zambia’s tourism value chain and maximise the potential for SMEs to expand exports to Europe, pairing them with specific activities and indicating which of the obstacles from the above list they can tackle.