The world has received a slight glimmer of hope following months of coronavirus pandemic doom. Multinational pharmaceutical giant company Pfizer said a final analysis of its clinical-trial data showed its Covid-19 vaccine, developed with the help of the German government and Germany-based BioNTech, was 95% effective in preventing Covid-19. This may pave the way for the company to obtain regulatory authorizations for its use in few coming days. This news which made people around the world to rejoice at what could be the light at the end of the tunnel – is an early festive gift for many of us in the tourism industry here in Zambia. Never before in my entire 10+ years of tourism business operation have l ever experienced anything so catastrophic as the impact of COVD-19 pandemic on my business. With absolutely nothing to fall back on for financial survival, it is a miracle that I have made it this far to see the near end of 2020 in grand style, with only a month to go. Pfizer announcement could never have come at a better time than this. It is great sigh of relief and indeed 2021 is going to be wild!
So it is true and now I believe the common saying that those of us in the tourism industry are highly a resilient people. I wonder where this resilience comes from as the year 2020 has been a true test of endurance beyond my comfort zone. I am grateful for the emotional support I received from a lot of our travel partners overseas in terms of encouragement on how to hold on and navigate in these turbulent COVID-19 times. But my greatest moment of agony came from seeing the massive suffering my workers have been subjected to. They entirely depend on the income they earn from my tourism businesses whose operations came to a grinding halt due COVID-19 pandemic. Without any form of COVID-19 financial bailout or relief from government, it was practically impossible to give my workers any form of financial support for them to eke out a bare minimum standard of living. Our tourism business depends entirely on international tourist arrivals to sustain our business. Domestic tourism in Zambia is very minimal due to economic malaise many locals go through. Leisure tourism is the last thing on the mind of a common citizen but daily survival drill is the common norm. With ZERO tourist arrivals that we have been experiencing for the past 9 months as a result of border closures and restrictions of our big brother South Africa, the main transit route for many tourists to Zambia, it has been a living hell for us as there has been no income coming in. I tried the Face Book COVID-19 financial relief support program. Unfortunately our region was not included in their mapping for eligibility to receive any financial support. Cry my beloved country in the real African hot sun! Only the very fittest survive.
So the best I could do to support my workers financially was to engage in vegetable gardening and sale the produce to the local market. But not all of the workers are interested in vegetable gardening as an alternative source of income as it is very labour intensive. So others opted to joining fishing cooperatives in Lake Itezhi Tezhi of the Kafue River. Sadly others resorted to making charcoal used for providing energy in cooking by engaging in massive tree cutting in Namwala and Mumbwa Game Management Area (GMA).
Anyway with so much happening in the medical field, I remain optimistic that come 2021, it is going to be wild. We are likely to receive many international tourists here in Zambia after a full year absence. We in the Kafue National Park, are more than ready to receive our guests with hearty Zambian smile. If you’re looking to travel to Africa soon and wondering about where to go, what to see, and how to do it all sustainably, look no further: we have your guide to sustainable tourism in Kafue National Park right here in Zambia. Kafue National Park is a big, beautiful place, and there’s something incredible to see around every corner. You could travel every day for six months and still not manage to find everything it has to offer!
Kafue National Park is in the center of western Zambia. It is the oldest and largest national park in Zambia. It is also one of the largest in Africa. It covers a total area of 22,400 kilometres squared or 8000 miles squared. It is so expansive that it has vast tracts of wilderness that are untouched and unexplored. It has more species of ungulates than any other national park in Africa. It has a number of the blue and yellow backed duckier, antelopes, sable and hartebeests among many others. It was established by the renowned conservationist, Norman Carr in 1955 as a game reserve and soon was turned into a game park. In the recent years, Kafue National Park has experienced a surge of tourism due to the increasing lodgings being set up around it which has increased its popularity.