Africa seems to be attracting more and more investment. Within this context, Zambia seems to be doing quite well with a very fast growing economy. Tourism seems to be one of the promising sector of the country. As a country, in 2012 we had about 800 059 tourists arrivals and in 2014, the number went up to 900 014, there was an increase in the arrivals of tourists in Zambia.

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The challenges are quite many in this sector and one of them is the airline connectivity. We do not have direct flights into Zambia, and if we did, this would work out to be cheaper for the tourists and it will also save on time. And for that reason, what we need is proper connectivity to the world by having airlines that would fly directly into Zambia. In the recent past we have had some of the airlines pulling out of the country, these include KLM, British Airways. However we have great news- the Turkish Airline is soon coming here. Government is also working towards having a national airline for the country, which will go a long way in promoting tourism.

Zambia is a sovereign nation, and while our neighboring countries have been engaged in cat hunting, they are not being criticized. As Minister of Tourism, I am aware that those speaking out the most are the ones who lost the bid for hunting blocks and are now lobbying NGOs to halt hunting. I will not entertain such efforts.

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As a Ministry we would like to tap into the Chinese market in terms of tourists. They have a large number of tourists. We are also working on partnering with Seychelles since they have an expanse of water but they do not have game parks. In Zambia we have about 20 game parks and therefore, when people visit the vast waters on the beaches of Seychelles, they could fly directly to Zambia and enjoy wildlife viewing. Zambia is in the process of signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Seychelles to implement this.