It’s good to see that a number or Malawi’s tourist attractions have been highly ranked in the press when measured on a global scale. The Daily Telegraph asked a panel of experts to come up with the world’s top beaches and Likoma Island in Lake Malawi was chosen by the panel as one of the twenty-five outstanding locations. Home to the famous Kaya Mawa Lodge, Likoma Island certainly deserves this accolade.
The Independent went even further in their trawl of the world’s leading diving destinations. Lake Malawi came out as the top for freshwater diving. The lake has the largest number of freshwater fish species on the planet and a growing number of lodges offering diving as an activity, often with top-class instruction.
Tourism Update, the leading South Africa magazine, recently rated Liwonde National Park among the top fourteen ‘eco-treasures’ among the multitude of parks and game reserves across the whole of southern Africa. Mvuu Lodge and Camp is the place to stay to enjoy a safari by boat, on foot or by a night drive.
Finally, The Sunday Times surveyed the world’s ten top Pop Festivals if you fail to get into Glastonbury! Not surprisingly, the Lake of Stars Festival at Chintheche, on Lake Malawi was one of the ten. Taking place at the beginning of October, the festival is like none other; its mix of African and western music attracts thousands and takes place in one of Lake Malawi’s most beautiful settings.
MALAWI’S WILDLIFE RESERVES
Two of Malawi’s lesser known Wildlife Reserves, Majete and Mwabvi are undergoing a transformation. Majete, near the head of the Lower Shire Valley, is being systematically re-stocked. The programme for this is well advanced and plans to up-grade and extend tourist facilities are underway. Majete is close to Blantyre and, together with the well-established Lengwe National Park (Nyala Lodge), will attract those visitors who wish to explore the more southerly reaches of the country.
Still further south is Mwabvi Wildlife Reserve, for a long time neglected and inaccessible. No longer: Mwabvi, under the guidance of Project Africa Wilderness (PAW) can now accommodate visitors at Chipambere Camp and treat them to an experience like none other. Here the tourist can not only enjoy the wildlife but also make a real contribution to the conservation work being carried out.
Barefoot Safaris are the driving force behind the project and they’re able to offer their guests learning experiences in tracking, identification and conservation. This form of educational safari is a first for Malawi and comes with the knowledge that it really contributes to the environment. For more information visit Barefoot-safaris.com.
MORE WILDERNESS
Visitors to Nkwichi Lodge on the eastern side of Lake Malawi can now choose to explore the Manda Wilderness Community Reserve – a truly wild and unspoilt part of the lake’s littoral.
This experience can be either by walking safari, with one or two nights in a mobile ‘fly camp’, or by sailing by dhow and setting up camp on one of the many deserted white-sand beaches. Either will be one those unforgettable experiences you can dine out on for years. For more information, visit Mandawilderness.org
LAKE OF STARS MUSIC FESTIVAL
This festival (also mentioned above) goes from strength to strength. From its beginnings in 2004, this fantastic celebration of African and western music now has a worldwide reputation and attracts visitors from as far away as Australasia, Europe and North America. The brainchild of Liverpudlian music impresario Will Jameson, now based in London, the Lake of Stars Festival will be at the beginning of October.
For this year’s event he has attracted a host of internationally famous DJs and groups for this three day African Glastonbury. This is the only event of its kind anywhere and features the best of Malawian modern and traditional music and its followers across Africa as well as from overseas.
A LAKE EXPERIENCE
Sharing experiences is what a good holiday is about and it was pleasing to get this message from Danforth Yachting recently: “Last weekend we went out on a sunset cruise on the luxury yacht Mufasa with a group from the UK and Denmark. As we set off we had a shower of rain, yet the sun was still shining. The raindrops looked like huge glistening diamonds on the water.
“The next thing we saw was a rainbow in the sky, with the arc completely filling Cape Maclear. It was absolutely breathtaking and we all sat out on the deck getting wet but just glorying in the magnificent scene nature had set for us. Superb! Moments like that are quite unbeatable.”
For more information, visit Danforthyachting.com
OTHER ATTRACTIONS
• Luwawa Forest Lodge, on the beautiful Viphya plateau, is never slow to innovate. They report that their new sauna is up and running – just the thing after a day trekking on one of the wilderness trails. Horse riding is also to be introduced when an equestrian expert has been appointed.
• Recent high profile visitor to Malawi was pop star Madonna who took her children on holiday while she attended to the Raising Malawi charity which she sponsors.
• Malawi’s only ‘extreme sport’, the Mount Mulanje Porters’ Race will be on 14 July this year. Last year’s race attracted an international field of 438. There’s still time to register for the 2007 event. See the Nyasa Times report for more information
• Well-known, Lilongwe based, Kiboko Safaris are expanding into the top end of the market with some 5- and 7-day luxury tours while maintaining their programmes of value-for-money safaris.
• The Spectrum Guide to Malawi – the best of all Malawi guide books – is available direct from the Information Office in the UK together with Malawi’s No.1 touring map – both at discount prices.
See Malawitourism.com for details.
Showing posts with label Tourism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tourism. Show all posts
Thursday, 26 April 2007
Sunday, 22 April 2007
Cooking up a bright future for Malawi tourism
The bustling kitchens of Baby Grand are a long way from Malawi, but it is here, in one of Glasgow's busiest restaurant chains, that Dumisami Kapanga and Shadreck Helepa are hoping to learn the skills that will help kickstart their tourism industry back home.
The students have been brought to Scotland as part of a vanguard of gifted entrepreneurs who it is hoped will provide expertise, enthusiasm and business acumen to transform the economic fortunes of Malawi - one of the world's poorest countries.
As part of their stay, they are spending 18 hours a week learning customer care skills, cooking and working as waiters at Brel and Ad Lib, both part of the Baby Grand Group in Glasgow. They will also be enrolled on four-year tourism undergraduate degrees at Glasgow Caledonian University.
According to Mr Kapanga, 23, the options in Scotland could not be more different from his home country. "Life is hard there. You don't know how you are going to get by each day. There are huge problems with HIV. If you are not infected, you are affected," he said.
Mr Kapanga, who was born and grew up in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, was well-educated and worked as a graphic artist after his parents died when he was a teenager, but his job paid the equivalent of £15 a month and opportunities were limited.
Now halfway through his degree, he said he wants to instill the professionalism learned in Glasgow back home. "The thing I notice here is how much pride Scottish people have in their own culture. I would like to see that in Malawi." The students' stay in Scotland has been sponsored by the Moffat tourism centre at Caledonian University and Billy McAneney, owner of the Baby Grand Group.
Malawi is ranked as the 10th poorest country in the world by the United Nations and has been ravaged by Aids/HIV, unemployment and difficulties in its agriculture sector. Tourism is seen as the way forward, but training people to run bars, hotels and attractions to standards expected by wealthy tourists in the West is not easy.
The Scottish Executive, which has formed strong links with Malawi, provided £250,000 to upgrade the African country's Institute of Tourism and bolster skills of people working in tourism. The Moffat Centre, which is administering the fund, is refitting the institute, providing books and up-to-date technology to replace its one, clapped-out PC.
John Lennon, professor of tourism at the Moffat Centre, said he also hopes to bolster the academic rating of the institute and will be enrolling eight people on distance-learning masters degrees.
"This is one of the most rewarding projects I have been involved in," he said. "Malawi has great potential for tourism. It is beautiful, safe and the people are incredibly friendly. If you want to see an authentic piece of Africa, it is the place to go."
Mr McAneney, who founded the Malawi Tomorrow charity which spends around £50,000 a year on projects in Malawi, said: "We are not simply going to train these people up and leave them to it'. We want to make sure that when they leave us, they not only have jobs to go to but play a role in transforming the fortunes of tourism in Malawi."
Country profile
Malawi's economy is said to be half the size of Falkirk's - or 1% of Scotland's
The country's population is 12.6 million people
More than half the population lives below the poverty line
Most Malawians rely on subsistence farming but the food supply situation is precarious
Moves are under way to exploit uranium reserves to boost meagre export earnings
Since the mid-1990s the country has privatised many loss-making state-run corporations
Tens of thousands of Malawians die of Aids every year and a programme to tackle HIV-Aids was launched in 2004
The students have been brought to Scotland as part of a vanguard of gifted entrepreneurs who it is hoped will provide expertise, enthusiasm and business acumen to transform the economic fortunes of Malawi - one of the world's poorest countries.
As part of their stay, they are spending 18 hours a week learning customer care skills, cooking and working as waiters at Brel and Ad Lib, both part of the Baby Grand Group in Glasgow. They will also be enrolled on four-year tourism undergraduate degrees at Glasgow Caledonian University.
According to Mr Kapanga, 23, the options in Scotland could not be more different from his home country. "Life is hard there. You don't know how you are going to get by each day. There are huge problems with HIV. If you are not infected, you are affected," he said.
Mr Kapanga, who was born and grew up in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, was well-educated and worked as a graphic artist after his parents died when he was a teenager, but his job paid the equivalent of £15 a month and opportunities were limited.
Now halfway through his degree, he said he wants to instill the professionalism learned in Glasgow back home. "The thing I notice here is how much pride Scottish people have in their own culture. I would like to see that in Malawi." The students' stay in Scotland has been sponsored by the Moffat tourism centre at Caledonian University and Billy McAneney, owner of the Baby Grand Group.
Malawi is ranked as the 10th poorest country in the world by the United Nations and has been ravaged by Aids/HIV, unemployment and difficulties in its agriculture sector. Tourism is seen as the way forward, but training people to run bars, hotels and attractions to standards expected by wealthy tourists in the West is not easy.
The Scottish Executive, which has formed strong links with Malawi, provided £250,000 to upgrade the African country's Institute of Tourism and bolster skills of people working in tourism. The Moffat Centre, which is administering the fund, is refitting the institute, providing books and up-to-date technology to replace its one, clapped-out PC.
John Lennon, professor of tourism at the Moffat Centre, said he also hopes to bolster the academic rating of the institute and will be enrolling eight people on distance-learning masters degrees.
"This is one of the most rewarding projects I have been involved in," he said. "Malawi has great potential for tourism. It is beautiful, safe and the people are incredibly friendly. If you want to see an authentic piece of Africa, it is the place to go."
Mr McAneney, who founded the Malawi Tomorrow charity which spends around £50,000 a year on projects in Malawi, said: "We are not simply going to train these people up and leave them to it'. We want to make sure that when they leave us, they not only have jobs to go to but play a role in transforming the fortunes of tourism in Malawi."
Country profile
Malawi's economy is said to be half the size of Falkirk's - or 1% of Scotland's
The country's population is 12.6 million people
More than half the population lives below the poverty line
Most Malawians rely on subsistence farming but the food supply situation is precarious
Moves are under way to exploit uranium reserves to boost meagre export earnings
Since the mid-1990s the country has privatised many loss-making state-run corporations
Tens of thousands of Malawians die of Aids every year and a programme to tackle HIV-Aids was launched in 2004
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
