| “People who live around Kasungu National Park depend on tourism and agriculture. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic killed tourism and disrupted rural markets. It was a tragedy for many local people.”These observations on the effects of the pandemic around Kasungu National Park in Malawi by Malidadi Langa, the chair of the Kasungu Wildlife Conservation for Community Development Association (KAWICCODA), were mirrored elsewhere in the country and on the African continent as travel restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 disrupted local and international tourism and trade in 2020 and 2021.“Even before COVID-19, tourism wasn’t a silver bullet for poverty reduction. It’s not like these communities were suddenly wealthy from tourism. Many were already struggling,” said Langa, explaining that the small-scale operators participating in the tourism value chain before the pandemic didn’t have the savings to weather the effects of prolonged business interruptions.“The impact was widespread. People who sell curios, supply produce, and work in lodges suddenly had no income, sometimes not even to buy food for that day. There were tour guides who had to become fishermen. Men and women were cutting trees for charcoal. People were desperate,” said Brighten Ndawala from the Mangochi–Salima Lake Park Association (MASALAPA). The association helps manage the sharing of revenues generated by Lake Malawi National Park with communities living within the park boundaries.“Eating our assets”Franciwell Phiri, Managing Director at Small Steps Adventure Tours in Malawi, said, “We almost collapsed as a business. From 10 staff, we were left with three guides who were only paid from activity to activity.” His company also relied heavily on local freelance guides around Malawi, whom they trained and paid per tour “so that they could earn a living from the attractions they and their communities help protect. And wherever we went, we supported the communities by buying their food and produce. We also offered home stays in villages, where guests participate in life as it happens, and communities – especially women – can earn much-needed revenues.”The travel company struggled with refunds and paying back deposits for cancellations, with Phiri describing borrowing money in Malawi as “impossible” given high-interest rates. “We were eating our assets. We sold and lost things like our own vehicles that we’d worked to pay off over the last 10 years. The scars are deep, and it will take a long time to heal,” said Phiri, who stayed afloat by offering special rates to local travellers and using his knowledge of Malawi’s rich cultural heritage to give presentations and lectures to businesses to bring in small amounts of money.“We need to get equipment back so we can compete in the market again. Our only hope is for organisations that want to support SMEs. We are happy to pay back loans. We just need favourable terms,” said Phiri.COVID-19 impactsIn the decade before 2020, international tourism to Malawi was steadily increasing. In 2019, the total contribution of the travel and tourism sector to the country’s GDP was 6.7%, and the sector provided close to 516,200 jobs. But when COVID-19 hit in 2020, tourism’s total contribution to the GDP dropped to 3.2%, with a loss of 167,000 jobs in the travel and tourism sector.“This is massive. A third of the country’s jobs in this sector were lost, affecting over half a million people who rely on tourism to meet their daily needs,” said WWF’s Nikhil Advani. He is the project manager for the Africa Nature-Based Tourism Platform (www.NatureBasedTourism.Africa), which interviewed 50 tourism-related enterprises in Malawi in the months following the pandemic’s start. According to the data collected (https://bit.ly/3NI2ijk), none could sustain operations at pre-pandemic levels without urgent funds. “Most stated that they would prefer these funds in the form of soft loans or grants than any other form. |
