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Are We Missing The Train?
So this is the year, the big year, 2005, and we have a huge
campaign called ‘Visit Zambia 2005’, launched at a breakfast at the
Pamodzi Hotel, with all the necessary speeches and right words. But
that seems to be where it has stopped. Yes, there is a Visit Zambia
2005 web site (www.visitzambia.co.zm)
although when I looked at the source file, typed some of the
keywords into Google, the site didn’t come up in the first three
pages. And a perusal of the site was disappointing, to say the least
– numerous articles about how there is no money and what money there
is (or the money that has just been given) will be used on
rehabilitation of Livingstone (works were expected to start soon)
and infrastructure and various other items which they hope will be
completed ‘by December’. The rest of the articles seem to be
about what is happening in the tourist world, rather than a site
giving details of tours, lodges, game parks and so on, things which
are going to entice readers to visit
Zambia, which is what I think it should be. Yes, by all means have a
section which tells people with an interest what the team is
doing, but the main thrust should be to have people walk away
thinking ‘this is a place I have to visit, let me rush off
immediately and make the bookings’.
And the photo gallery – a total of twenty four photographs. Surely
in this vast and beautiful country of ours, we could come up with
more than twenty four photographs. Yes, I do know that the team
have been surfing the web and contacting various people about using
their photographs. In fact, I was sent an exchange of emails between
them and one of the people whom they had approached. It was rather
amusing, but at the same time, it was very, very sad as the
correspondent had given them some very useful tips on where they
could get more photographs (free of charge) and six weeks later they
have still not made any contact with that person. And I know that
the person referred to has in excess of 12,000 photographs taken all
over Zambia and would willingly let them use as many as they wanted.
 And
there is a page called ‘Contacts’ which is broken down into ‘People’
and ‘Companies’. The Companies page has a total of one link – Zamnet.
Fair enough, although I am not sure why people planning on visiting
Zambia would want to contact Zamnet. But the interesting one is the
‘People’ – why would anyone want the contact information for
Austin Vuyo Makota,
a Supply Controller at the Ministry of Defence and based in the UK
and
Mwamba Kaoma,
an Engineer, based in USA? It will be interesting to know exactly
who these people are and why they warrant a mention on the Visit
Zambia site.
The other section with appalling content is the
links. There are many of excellent Zambian web sites, sites that
deal with tourism and places to visit and things to do whilst one is
here. So why do we need to have links to Kasisi Orphanage and CINDI.
Certainly, have links to their web pages, but please, also have
links to pages which are relevant to what you are trying to sell and
which show Zambia in a positive light, because there are many
positive things which can be highlighted. Web pages,
especially in the world outside of Zambia, are major marketing
tools. But if this is all that the team can do, I hold out no
hope for the success of the campaign.
The other part of the Visit Zambia 2005
campaign was to highlight the various anniversaries which are
happening in Livingstone – 150 years since David Livingstone visited
the Falls, 100 years since Livingstone became a town and 100 years
since completion of the bridge across the Zambezi. In late January,
after much chasing and many phone calls, someone in Livingstone
finally gave me information about the Livingstone Events
Organisation. After more chasing and phone calls and chats with
friends, I was finally sent a programme for the events which will be
happening each month in Livingstone. Armed with this document, I set
off for Livingstone to meet with the people involved and was told
that the Livingstone Events Organisation is the organisation that is
co-ordinating everything.
What a disappointment. What I was told was that
they had no money for publicity, no money for salaries, no money for
anything and that they are having to raise funds themselves for each
event and this is the reason why there is no pre-publicity of
events. Also because they often only finalise details two or three
days before the event, it is not possible to get the information to
the outside world i.e. the world outside of Livingstone. To be
honest, the information doesn’t even get out to the Livingstone
world – I was in Livingstone on 4 and 5 February and very few people
knew about the events that were happening on those two days.
The information that was sent to me by them tells me that LEO was
set up by the
Livingstone Tourism Association and Zambia National Tourism Board.
If these are the organisations that have set it up, then surely it
is up to them, to ensure that they are able to operate efficiently
and effectively.
Of course, I also had a chat with some of the
Livingstone tour operators. A number of them told me that they were
not interested in supporting the LEO. Whether this is because of
small-town politics or whether they genuinely see it as a waste of
resources because they do not believe it will achieve the objectives
it was set out to achieve, I cannot tell.
Just prior to putting this issue of The Lowdown
to bed, I was trying to make arrangements for accommodation and
activities in Livingstone. Previously, I used to go straight to the
Livingstone Tourism Association web site (www.destinationlivingstone.com)
where they had a very useful page with all their member’s contact
details and links to their web pages where they existed. I was very
pleased to see that the site has been redesigned and is now a lot
more attractive. But for somebody like me who, in this instance,
knows exactly what I am looking for, I would have been happier with
links to operators and lodges in Livingstone. Instead I got a half
finished web site, with only two lodge names and a few stories about
the Editor’s experiences in Livingstone with lots of grammatical
errors and lots of ‘watch this space’. Not a single thing on what I
can do whilst in Livingstone with the exception of a small advert
for ‘Birding With Bob’ but not even any contact information for Bob.
So what is my assessment of all this.
Undoubtedly, Livingstone, and indeed the whole of Zambia has missed
the train. But perhaps, if someone wakes up and starts running now,
they might be able to catch it before it pulls out of the station
completely. Is there such a person or a group of persons who can do
this?
(As I
was finishing this article, I was very pleased to receive, right at
the promised time, the information on the activities that will be
taking place in Livingstone to commemorate the opening of the bridge
across the Zambezi. Although this information was not complete, at
least the bulk of it was there, although there was no confirmation
of the date on which the steam train crossing will take place. I
hope to receive this early tomorrow morning in time for inclusion in
this issue. Thank you to Edwin Mbulo of NHCC) |
April
2005