Mining & Trade News

The Department of Tourism in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism will use this year’s Takulandilani Malawi International Expo to provide a platform for participants to have firsthand experience of Malawi’s tourism products and share best practices on how to network and package the products.

The expo will also, at the local level, provide various business opportunities for those in the fields of catering, arts and crafts as well as stand branding.

Secretary for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Ken Ndala, has announced in a press statement that this year’s Takulandilani Malawi International Tourism Expo (MITE)—the fourth of its kind—will be held in April at the Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe.

Malawi’s travel and tourism sector contributes 7.7 percent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

At last year’s Expo, government unveiled a master plan to develop the tourism sector which includes putting up necessary infrastructure ‘to create a conducive business climate for existing players in the industry and intensifying promotional activities to attract more tourists and investors.’

The master plan will be implemented over a period of 25 years and will guide planning, zoning and promotion of tourism investment in the country.

As part of the plan, the government has already constructed two access roads in the tourism district of Salima connecting lakeshore resorts to the main road and acquired over 17 hectares of land along the lakeshore for development of public beaches which will act as a model for tourism development along the lake, according to Ndala.

The Ministry has also upgraded the Kamuzu International Airport with assistance from the Japanese Government through the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The government is also implementing the Promotion of Investment and Competitiveness in the Tourism Sector (PICTS) project with financial support from the African Development Bank (AFDB) to the tune of US$10-million.

The project seeks to build and strengthen institutional capacity in tourism statistics development and implementation of Tourism Satellite Accounting for Malawi.

The project also seeks to build capacity of 500 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism sector through training and provisions of loans.

The PICTS project will further enhance law enforcement in Kasungu and Lake Malawi National Parks to reduce wildlife poaching and strengthen the Malawi Tourism Council, which is the voice of the tourism private sector so that it serves its members more effectively.

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