The Zambia Tourism Board (ZTB) has recently undertook a series of tourism road shows in Perth in Australia’s western region to advertise Zambia as an adventure destination.
The shows count with the participation of Zambian citizens living in Perth’s diaspora to support the promotion of Zambian tourism products, key programs and events to promote the country as a tourist and business destination.
The idea was proposed by ZTB Managing Director Felix Chalia, whom explained that tourists from Australia and New Zealand are among those visiting more frequently the country while taking longer stays, reason why it was important to increase the awareness among their citizens about the tourism industry in Zambia.
According to the World Bank (WB), Australia and New Zealand visitors account for 7.3% of the total tourist arrivals to Zambia and they constitute the third biggest group after Europe accounting for 18.1% and Americas representing 8.9% of the total.
There were approximately 859,000 tourist arrivals to Zambia in 2013. The number is expected to reach 923,000 by the end of 2015 and 1,504,000 by 2025, growing at a rate of 4.9% per annum according to the World, Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
Zambia’s High Commissioner to Australia, Mr. George Zulu, explained that the future of Zambian tourism is in the Australasia region and that the mission will closely work with the ZTB to tap the huge markets of Australia and New Zealand.
During 2014-2015 a total of 16.9 million Australian residents left the country with 98.2% of them leaving the country for short-term stays according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
African countries are not currently in the top ten destinations for Australian tourists, with South Africa being the only African country ranking in the ABS’ list of most common destinations for Australian travelers recording 83,000 arrivals in the same period.
Regarding New Zealand, Africa does not represent yet a main tourist destination with only an average of 2,500 out of 200,000 monthly resident departures choose Africa & Middle-East for their holidays according to Statistics New Zealand.
