Minister of Tourism and Culture Michael Usi says Malawi’s tourism industry has been hit hard by the second Coronavirus wave but it will be able to compete when the world opens up.
Speaking in an interview with Malawi24, Usi said the Tourism industry in Malawi has been greatly affected by the coming of the second wave of Covid-19 as nothing is moving as far as Tourism is concerned.
He, however, said the Ministry is doing the groundwork to ensure that the country’s tourism industry competes with similar industries when the world opens up.
“We are trying our best, what we are doing right now as a Ministry is to make sure that during this difficult time we are preparing ourselves in a such a way that when the world has opened up we should be able to compete in the Tourism sector.
“We are doing this by developing our domestic industry that we would say like areas like Zowa we are talking about Chingalile village such areas should be supported and also sensitize Malawians on the value of domestic tourism because domestic tourism is a key that will open Malawi to the outside world.
“We are also looking at even the clean-up day as this is also helping to clean Malawi and making Malawi attractive. We are also talking of our behavior as Malawians, are they conducive to attract tourists? So in a nutshell we are preparing ourselves in the tourism sector this time around as we are in difficult time of Covid-19 pandemic,” said Usi.
The minister also noted that the funding is insufficient in the tourism sector and this is so because there are many other sectors that are getting funding from Government.
He said the Ministry will try to write proposal to get funding from donors to supplement or complement the public offer.
Malawi has been hit by the second wave of Coronavirus pandemic which has taken the total number of cases from nearly 7,000 in December to over 19,000 as of yesterday.
