Impacts of Wildlife Tourism on Rural Livelihoods in Southern Africa - Responsible Tourism: Critical Issues for Conservation and Development - page 145

Zambia
Policy
Tourism is one of the three main 'legs' of the Zambian economy, alongside mining
and agriculture (Hamilton et al, 2007).Tourism is highlighted in the 2001 Poverty
Reduction Strategy Paper, and also within the Fifth National Development plan;
where targets for tourist arrivals, employment and earnings are specified. The
Administrative Management Design for Game Management Areas (ADMADE)
programme was established in 1987 in order to decentralize wildlife management
and divide the responsibilities and benefits from wildlife more evenly between
government, the private sector and local communities. Administrative units
operate from participating Game Management Areas (GMAs), which include
representatives from traditional authorities, district government, the trophy
hunting industry and National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS) (Lewis and
Alpert, 1997). In the mid-1990s Zambia devised a Medium Term Tourism
Strategy and Action Plan, which included strategies to brand national parks as a
central focus of marketing tourism in the country (Hamilton et al, 2007).
Employment
Suich et al (2005) found that accommodation in the Upper Zambezi area paid
US$809,000 (15 per cent of turnover) to employ 391 staff, of whom 3 were part-
time. Suich et al (2005) also found that guesthouses in Livingstone spent an
estimated US$237,000 on wages and salaries in 2004 (23 per cent of turnover)
paid to 352 employees (of whom 4 were employed part-time). 10 The non-guest-
houses paid US$6.1 million (25 per cent of turnover) to employ 1792 staff, of
whom 680 were part-time. In all, US$6.3 million was spent in the region on
salaries and wages for all 2144 workers in this area. Tour operators in Livingstone
spent US$743,000 on wages and salaries (or 19 per cent of turnover) to 412
employees.
Pope (2005) reported that in 2005 there were 14 photographic and two
hunting tourism operators in the Luangwa Valley area. The Luangwa Safari
Association (LSA) member operators offer approximately 600 tourist beds (400
in camps and lodges and another 200 in campsites), representing nearly 65,000
annual tourist bed nights. Total permanent employment in LSA camps and
lodges increased by over 1000 per cent between 1990 and 2003, from a total of
51 in 1990 to 504 in 2003. While the magnitude of LSA employment is insignif-
icant on a national scale, the trend and the tourism-related opportunities
elsewhere in the country as a whole are significant. Employment growth among
LSA operators is in Zambian nationals - increased tenfold from 40 in 1990 to
471 in 2003. The gross number of expatriates employed increased from 11 in
1990 to 33 in 2003, but the average number of expatriates per company has
declined from 6 to 4 over the same period. By 2005 there were just over 500 full-
time employees with LSA companies. In gross terms this represents an
employee-client ratio of 1.98. This ratio has remained unchanged since 1990
(Pope, 2005).