Malawi\u2019s tourism contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to grow by 4.2 percent this year, from last year\u2019s 7.2 percent.<\/p>\n
Minister of Tourism, Joseph Mwanamvekha, said this on Friday during a graduation ceremony of Malawi Institute of Tourism (MIT) students in Blantyre.<\/p>\n
Mwanamvekha said the tourism sector\u2019s total contribution to GDP in 2015 was K221 billion representing 7.2 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is projected to grow by 4.2 percent to K230 billion in 2016. In 2015, Travel and Tourism directly and indirectly supported over 400,000 jobs representing 6.2 percent of total employment.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking ahead to 2026, Travel and Tourism is expected to support 634,000 jobs. Globally, the total contribution of the Tourism Sector to GDP worldwide was US$7.17 trillion in 2015 which is 9.8 percent of world GDP,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He further said as a country, we should appreciate the importance of the sector to our economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a country, we should, therefore, work hard to leapfrog these forecasts and make tourism contribute more wealth and jobs to our economy. The government will, therefore, continue to promote and invest in the sector as one way of growing the economy and increasing Malawi\u2019s trade in services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government is aware that currently, there is a huge skills gap at all levels in the tourism sector. This continues to negatively affect the quality of service delivery and our competitiveness as a tourist destination,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mwanamvekha further said the tourism sector is currently attracting more investors in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe industry is experiencing huge investments, especially in the tourist accommodation sector, which now dominates much of the super-structure developments in our cities, towns and tourist attraction sites. The increase in the number of tourist facilities also increases the demand for more trained personnel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe importance of training adequate personnel, therefore, cannot be over emphasised. As a matter of fact, the government has ramped up efforts to attract investment in the sector. At the moment, two serious investors have made significant progress in the preparations towards the construction of 5 Star hotels in Blantyre and in Lilongwe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
MIT Executive Director, Isabel Chakhumbira, said the institution is set to complement the government\u2019s efforts to provide quality services within the sector.<\/p>\n
She, however, said the efforts are currently being hindered by lack of space and equipment.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur major challenge is space to accommodate the students who want to pursue various courses at our institution. As a school, we also lack equipment and we, therefore, request the government to assist us in that area,\u201d said Chakhumbira.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malawi\u2019s tourism contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to grow by 4.2 percent this year, from last year\u2019s 7.2 percent. Minister of Tourism, Joseph Mwanamvekha, said this on Friday during a graduation ceremony of Malawi Institute of Tourism (MIT) students in Blantyre. Mwanamvekha said the tourism sector\u2019s total contribution to GDP in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29137,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29131\/revisions\/29137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}