Feature
Travel/Tourism

By Frazer Potani, Lilongwe, Malawi

Soon after our Boeing 737-800 Kenyan Airways airbus "The Pride Of Africa" touched Seychelles International Airport at Mahe Island, the main land mass in the archipelago state, I quickly removed my green leather jacket after sensing that soon it would be steamy hot outside the aircraft.

I secured air tickets including food and accommodation and welfare packages for the trip by simply impressing United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) judges with "When climate change is witchcraft" in the Ozone Media Awards for Africa launched in Malawi in 2010.

The article illustrated how traditional beliefs can be a barrier to action, in the context of responding to unreliable rainfall due to climate change offcourse fueled by rampant acts of environmental degradation by man in Malawi and was published online on Africanews.com earning me a 'Special Prize'.

Yes! I am the first Malawian and journalist to win a 'Special Prize' in the Ozone Media Awards for Africa.

Mind you "When climate change is witchcraft" was also submitted to the prestigious African Pulitzer, CNN Africa Journalist of the Year in 2011 in the Environment Category yet its judges ploughed its paragraph acres with their brainy hoes and abandoned the task after failing to retrieve even just a tiny granite grain in it to warrant my work as an award winning material!

Yet in my own country the same feature story in earlier May during Press Freedom Day commemoration last year also scooped the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)-Malawi Chapter Environment Sustainability Award sponsored by UNDP Mission Office in Lilongwe also earning me a state of the art LCD32"/81Cm High Definition German model Telefunken flat (plasma) Television Screen worth K130,000 (about $800) Game Stores chain price in the country then!

And just ask me how I was treated while in Seychelles due to “When climate change is witchcraft"

The feature article brought some magic that saw myself engulfed in an invisible robe of great honor as I stood on a hotel podium on the beautiful Eden Island as I received my award certificate in the presence of Seychelles Government officials and gave me a chance to rub my shoulders with a sample of UN's cream of environmentalists including Jeremy Bazye, UNEP Senior Regional Coordinator for Africa based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Even the over 30 delegates from various parts of Africa including Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ghana, Gambia, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, Angola, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Egypt, Somalia, Nigeria, Mauritius, Lesotho, hosts Seychelles to the Ozone Conference for English Speaking countries present had to clap hands as my name was called.

"When climate change is witchcraft" even made me $500 dollars richer and transformed me into a celebrity.

How? My fellow winner, soft spoken and eloquent speaker, Zimbabwean multi-award winning science journalist, Busani Bafana turned me and also another fellow winner, Uganda's Gerald Tenywa (working for his country's leading daily, The New Vision) into news makers.

Yes! Bafana saw the necessity to interview us to extract our integrity from our stories. My article on the other hand taught me that just as another person's food is someone's poison, in journalism while another journalist's entry in an award is to another judge worth an award winning material, to another it might just be another trash to be rushed to a dust bin!

Therefore,I have to continue participating in awards even if it is someone who has won not me because I believe this is one of the genuine gauges of how professional, ethical my work has been in informing, educating and entertaining masses!

After all, one can not win an award by blaming anyone for not awarding him/her an award but identifying good story cloth pieces and tailoring them in a story garment that convince judges that it is good work worthy granting highest marks ratings next time! Yes! Because frankly speaking to any journalist worthy his /her salt is even well aware that to win an award it all depends on meeting all the set up criteria for rating competing stories before judges coming up with an award winning article full stop!

Before taking this UNEP sponsored flight around 12 O'clock Midnight from Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in Lilongwe on Saturday June 18 last year, to this tiny country that God, in His Mighty Wisdom, laid in these beautiful but rich waters of Indian Ocean, I was tipped in advance that temperatures are high (range from 26 to 29 degrees Celsius) all year round!

This was proved to be true, for as soon as I stepped my foot on the apron around 1 O'clock afternoon on Sunday June 19 last year, I was engulfed in humidity, similar to the heat of Malawi’s southern valley districts of Chikhwawa and Nsanje.

The June weather I encountered after landing in Victoria, the capital of Seychelles, was contrary to the biting cold I left behind in Lilongwe, Lusaka and Nairobi, the capitals of Malawi, Zambia and Kenya respectively, on my way to the Seychelles.

During my stay in that small beautiful country, I had an opportuniy to sample a variety of mouth watering fish and sea food dishes and wash my throat with one of that country's endemic hard drinks 'Seybrew'. I also learnt that while Malawi is in southern Africa and has over 13.1 million people, the Seychelles’ population is just a tiny fraction of this.

Lying just four degrees south of the Equator, the trilingual Seychelles is a member of the 14-member grouping of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that includes Malawi.

The Seychellois also taught me that I should be proud to be of my Malawian heritage-just the islanders were of theirs.

Yes! I was amazed to learn that people in that small country, no matter what they are, are never in a hurry, they always find time to chat or smile at each other.

Something you would never see on the main streets such as Times Square in New York City or London, Berlin or Paris where the people are always in a hurry oblivious to other human beings around them! Not here, thanks to their African heritage in them.

The Seychellois’ lifestyle is characterized by a warm, happy-go-lucky attitude and proud of their identity to the extent that foreign influences have failed to pollute or disturb this, let alone destroy the people’s traditions.

It is therefore, not surprising that the friendly folks of the Seychelles offer a variety of accommodation, ranging from international resorts and medium-sized hotels with all facilities to guest houses, lodges and chalets on the smaller islands.

While their main language is Creole, most people here communicate in English and French, and the multiple islands-state receives more visitors than its population of just 90,000!

The archipelago’s islands are literally 1,000 miles along the Indian Ocean and yet the residents numbers are much less than Malawi’s third city of Mzuzu’s population of over 120,000!

The Malawi capital Lilongwe has even over 600,000 residents (or over 30 times the population of Seychelles capital’s Victoria-Mahe’s 20,000 people)!

No wonder a fellow visitor from Zambia jokingly told me: “My friend people in this small, beautiful country can easily recite each other’s names because their population is as big as a village.”

He added: “If someone is stupid enough to commit a crime here, the police have no excuse of tracing and apprehending the suspect.”

My trip to Seychelles also taught me that despite Malawi and Seychelles being many thousands kilometers apart and members of SADC, they have some similarities in the tourism world.

Just as Malawians are friendly to visitors, so are Seychellois. But while Malawians comprise of descendants of migrants from some parts of the continent, Seychelles is a real melting pot because its citizens are descendants of original French settlers, their African slaves, the liberated slaves rescued from slavers in the 19th century, and the British, who were last to colonize these islands in the sun after the French.

The small nation also boasts of Indian and Chinese traders intermingling to produce an almost unparalleled and multifaceted community, yet one that is completely integrated.

The Seychellois further have rich racial blend clearly reflecting in their varied culture and food mainly dominated by fish dishes.

While Malawi is famously known as the “Warm Heart of Africa” islands of Seychelles are likened to “A string of Pearls set in the Azure Waters of the Indian Ocean.”
Due to this character, the country’s slogan proudly claims the Seychelles is in fact, “Not Just Another Place, Another World.”

Malawi, like the Seychelles also enviously stocks varieties of fish and possesses some beautiful and breathtaking scenery that leaves tourists with no choice but to return to the place of the same. What a rare achievement!

But while Malawi has Lake Malawi and its assorted varieties of fish that are found nowhere else in the world’s fresh waters and has from immemorial depended on tobacco to generate forex for running the economy, the Seychelles is able to import food, clothing, construct magnificent shelter and even afford some luxuries for her people with forex generated from fish exports and tourism!

“We are just about 90, 000 people but we receive more than 160, 000 tourists per year because we are good at receiving and caring for visitors. So there are more tourists than the population of our country,” the Seychelles Principal Secretary (PS) for Environment, Didier Dogley told us during a tea break at a meeting with environmentalists at International Conference Centre (ICC) in Victoria-Mahe in his tiny but beautiful country.

He added: “Apart from tourism which contributes about 15 percent of our economy our fisheries industry (mainly in tuna fish), with support from European Union-seafood contributes 10 percent of revenue to economy.”

This just proves that, with political will Malawi could also boost economic growth with fish and tourism especially with its most delicious Chambo (of the tilapia family) together with the colourful, ornamental cichlids such as the Mbuna that live underneath the world’s 13th largest lake recognized as one of the most beautiful bodies of fresh water lakes in the world by Yahoo Travel!

At a recent Aquaculture Conference for southern African countries held in the beautiful lakeshore district of Mangochi in my country, former Deputy Agriculture Minister Margaret Roka Mauwa admitted that Malawi was “rich in fish resources that if fully exploited, could boost our economic growth”

“Malawi is making good progress in fish production and this is encouraging. Some fish produced by our farmers in dams (aquaculture) in the country have even found themselves on the markets abroad,” she said.

Mauwa disclosed that what was required, if fish is to contribute to the country’s social-economic development, production should continue to increase.
“...and we should explore more international markets to export more fish to generate more forex,” she added.


Malawi’s Tourism Minister Daniel Liwimbi during a tour of the magnificent Five Star Hotel and complex of Presidential Villas at City Centre in Lilongwe also explained that if exploited up to its potential, our tourism sector could also energize our troubled tobacco- dependent economy to eradicate poverty.

“Currently tourism contributes between 10 and 11 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but it has the potential of contributing more,” said Liwimbi.

But if Malawi has to fully benefit from tourism has to first overcome some challenges.

Nelson Nsiku a lecturer in Economics at the University of Malawi Polytechnic and a member of several national associations and committees that contribute to the policy debate on economic planning and trade policy in Malawi and Sheila Kiratu an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a trade and investment lawyer with research interests in sustainable development, climate change, energy and investment and also coordinator of the Trade Knowledge Network Southern Africa branch conducted a research on Malawi’s tourism which exposed the sector's potential and challenges.

The study for instance reveals that the coming of visitors from elsewhere into Malawi was not automatic that the tiny southern African country would generate foreign currency from tourism for social-economic development .

“Tourism can either bring foreign exchange into Malawi or leak it out of the economy. Prior to the liberalization of the financial sector, the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) kept track of all foreign investment as the central point through which overseas investors moved their investments. However, the situation now is different in that any commercial bank can handle such foreign exchange transactions,” said Nsiku and Kiratu adding that similarly, foreign currencies can move out of the country through the same commercial banks.

“It is the monitoring of such inflows and outflows that poses a real challenge. To date, there is no specific data estimating leakages,” said Nsiku and Kiratu adding that it is estimated that in Malawi the private sector has more foreign reserves than the central bank has at its disposal to meaningfully regulate foreign currency market.

They further said challenge of foreign currency leakages in Malawi is exacerbated by other social problems including the consequence of the tourist explosion the world over as well as illegal activities such as prostitution and dealing in drugs.

“In Malawi, some tourism businesses rely on the number of women visiting their premises,” said Nsiku and Kiratu adding that Malawi needs to do more if tourism is to contribute to the country’s social-economic development.

President Bingu wa Mutharika admitted that his government is shouldering the blame of foreign currency shortages because it is struggling to control the flow of forex in Malawi.

The President said he is aware that some businessmen are hoarding the foreign currency thereby contributing to its scarcity in Malawi.

He even questioned the patriotism of such business captains involved in such practices since some are Asians of Malawian origin.

“Forex scarcity in this country is not because of government but some unscrupulous businessmen who are hoarding forex and in turn blame it on my administration. There is no way one can claim that they are Malawian citizens when you have your foreign currency denomination accounts,” charged Mutharika.

As if proving Mutharika's claims as true, few weeks ago two Asians of Malawian origin were given bail after being arrested at Kamuzu International Aiport in Lilongwe after being in possesion of thousands of US Dollars worth millions of Kwacha they had allegedly planned to syphon out of the country.

RBM Governor Perks Ligoya said in an effort to improve forex inflow in the country, Government devalued the country’s currency (Kwacha) from K150 to K167 against the US Dollar, representing a 10 percent fall.

“The move was necessitated by pressures facing the country’s economy that range from among other things, shortage of forex itself and fuel scarcity,” he said.

Ligoya further explained that the devaluation of the Kwacha is one of the measures taken by Capital Hill in Lilongwe as a short, medium to long term measure to solve the problems experienced by Malawi.

“Devaluation alone may not therefore, yield expected results,” he said.


Nsiku and Kiratu further tipped authorities in Malawi that if the country is to realize benefits from tourism sector to contribute to poverty reduction they should regard the sector as more than just an economic activity.

"It [tourism] is, in essence, a massive interaction of people demanding a wide range of services, facilities and inputs that generate opportunities and challenges for the Malawian government. For this reason, it is necessary to manage the growth of the sector and to have clear guidelines to ensure that growth brought about through new investment is compatible with national and sectoral objectives,” they explained.

The two researchers also suggested that if Malawi is to make a sound social economic contribution to the economy to eradicate poverty government should stimulate tourism growth, the sector should be private sector driven and supportive of community involvement and vice versa.

“Tourism should even have the potential of employment creation in a gender responsive manner and be environmentally responsible and sustainable,” said Nsiku and Kiratu.

The two further recommended that policy makers in Malawi should create an environment whereby Malawians should become tourists within their country themselves (by offering affordable goods and services in the country’s tourism sector which are currently beyond the purchasing power of locals) than just anticipating foreigners to come in the country to contribute to the economy.

“Most domestic visitors to tourism facilities come from the urban areas of Blantyre and Lilongwe. In addition, investment in tourism has been criticized for exacerbating societal problems: the destruction of social patterns, for instance, child abuse, poor labour conditions and the domination of European investors are not unusual mostly in the tourist attraction areas like Mangochi and Cape Maclear. In extreme cases, there is no respect for local societies and cultural values,” they said.

Nsiku and Kiratu also emphasized that the sustainable development and management of tourism in Malawi requires responsible behaviour from private tourism companies.

“Most tourism operators simply do not want to talk about their social responsibilities. The disclosure of any information that may indicate their level of profitability is seen as making themselves vulnerable to competition and the tax collector,” they said adding that Malawi has considerable potential to develop the tourism sector.

“The sector was gradually taking off and the contribution of travel and tourism to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Malawi was 5.9 per cent in 2008, but with the slump in the world economy it was expected to be 3.5 percent in 2009,” they said adding, “Indeed, inbound tourism to Malawi has experienced steady growth in recent years”

The two researchers however, disclosed that while the number of tourists visiting Malawi have been increasing, the majority of them-65 per cent of tourist arrivals were from African countries, mainly Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

“Arrivals from Europe accounted for an estimated 16 per cent, with most coming from the United Kingdom and Ireland. The majority of tourists come from South Africa and countries bordering Malawi, with all trends pointing upwards,” they said.

Nsiku and Kiratu added that while in fact, others have referred to this overall upward trend as a positive development, the Malawi Tourism Association (MTA) (an organization promoting interests of key players in the country’s tourism sector) warns of overly simplistic analysis of this pattern, and prefers to look at the composition of the trends.

“The MTA’s argument refers generally to the definition of a tourist. However, the following generalizations are plausible: visitors from Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe are mostly visiting friends/relatives because of the cultural and historical ties between Malawi and these countries,” said the dual.

The two researchers singled out many Zimbabweans who were for instance at the peak of their country’s social-economic meltdown under 'Uncle Bob' [comrade President Robert Gabriel Mugabe’s ZANU-PF] led government fleeing into Malawi that they could have been mistakenly regarded as tourists instead of asylum seekers.

“There are problems also facing the local tourism sector, which is characterized by a large number of Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). In Malawi, such examples are the restaurants, tour guides at the foot of Mount Mulanje,” they said.

Nsiku and Kiratu said SMEs serve useful functions in Malawi tourism for example, the development of linkages, providing personal service.

“But for most of them, life is a daily struggle, with many of them operating at the margin of survival,” said the dual adding that however, the SMEs also desperately need more capacity building to run tourism business according to modern management principles.

In fact according to Nsiku and Kiratu the nature of tourism renders SMEs in Malawi uncompetitive, as they are unable to capitalize on the advantages that accrue from economies of scale.

“They [SMEs] also have limited resource base to benefit from this objective which is hard to achieve. The real social challenge, though, is the proliferation of foreign investors running small restaurants targeting the same international tourists. Despite the availability of legislation to reserve certain sectors for Malawians, its enforcement is a huge challenge for the government. The upsurge of small (community based) restaurants, such as Chinese restaurants, is posing serious competition to local investors,” explained the researchers.

Liwimbi admitted that Malawi’s tourism has to overcome some challenges to enable the country attract more travelers to contribute to the agriculture-(mainly tobacco production) dependent economy.

To boost tourism, he therefore, said Malawi Government is encouraging investors in the tourism sector to among other things, invest in tourism through infrastructures such as hotels, resorts and other related tourism goods and services of international standards.

“On its part government is active and it has among other things intensified the improvement of road infrastructures to tourism attraction centres to be easily accessed by tourists in the country,” he said, adding that to improve standards, the hotel grading exercise will continue.

“The aim of the grading exercise is to give visitors a better guidance in terms of choices of shelters,”said Liwimbi.

That way, perhaps, Malawi could one day be able to attract more visitors than its current population of 13.1 million.

The Seychelles, with its well-regulated tourism industry, has done it. Why can’t a beautiful country like Malawi and its beautiful people with everything under the sun known as the ‘Warm Heart of Africa” emulate the excellent but doable example of the Seychellois?

As for me as I flew out of the beautiful island state, leaving behind the beautiful waters of the Indian Ocean, and the lovely smiles of the lovely Seychellois, I had no doubt that one day I will return to these lovely shores with my beloved family.
Yes! Just to relax with them and sample all that tuna-before the ships take it away to les chefs de Paris!

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