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December 2003

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From The Editor

Since the beginning of August, I have been very movious (like the Kasanka bats which can still be seen during December, so don’t wait another year) and have spent more time away from Lusaka than in the city. Visiting seven of Zambia’s provinces (only the two most distant, Luapula and North Western provinces were not reached), meant endless kilometres of mostly good road, numerous hotels and lodges visited, some excellent and some not so good meals eaten in restaurants and plenty of laughs along the way. It also means plenty of material for articles in the coming months. And these travels were done in the company of friends; Arthur who left here in 1962 and had not been back for 40 years and Craig, a Bamba Zonke, who grew up south of the Zambezi. Many would probably say that they have already endured enough punishment having to travel around with me, but there is more to come – they have still to write an article each on their impressions and experiences. These will be published in due course.

But my traveling was not confined to Zambia. It also included a trip to London where, amongst other things, I spent time at the World Travel Market; the market place for those in the tourist industry. This Expo is held annually and is the premier marketing event of the year with 26,000+ visitors during its four day duration.

Once again, Zambia was strongly represented by a number of hotels, lodges, tour operators and of course, Zambia National Tourist Board. It is indeed heartening to see so many service providers making the effort (and spending the money) to attend this event and we hope that they will see the returns in increased bookings during the coming year and for years to come. It was also interesting to see what other countries have to offer although none of them were able to convince me that there was anywhere I should visit until I have seen some of Zambia’s lesser-known places of interest. And there are many places here which are still on my list to visit.

Having spent time at WTM, I have many comments on how I think Zambia could make a bigger impact and how we could market our beautiful country better. These will be put into a short report which will be sent to ZNTB in due course, together with some of the small logistical problems that I noticed. But something about which I have no suggested solution is those operators who don’t book a table, but who still form part of the Zambian contingent - the floaters, a name reminiscent of the old days when every beer bottle coming out of Zambia Breweries was turned upside down and held against the light before opening and subsequent drinking. Someone else suggested that the name was derived from the floaters which just won’t disappear no matter how many times the chain in pulled. But whatever, I hope they don’t go away because they also have their part to play. Suggestions for another name would be welcome.

But it is not only marketing that concerns me. Of greater concern is how our operators are going to survive with the high level of fees they have to pay annually to the various councils, statutory boards and other authorities and for which they get very little, if any, benefit. I have collected information from the operators on what these fees are, but am still struggling to analyse them as they seem to differ from place to place and from area to area. As the end of the year approaches and everyone is frantically trying to complete their budgets for 2004, I hope that it is remembered that these fees are ultimately passed on to the tourist, whether local or foreign, making a holiday in Zambia very expensive and thus eliminating many potential visitors. That we are competing with the rest of the world must be kept in mind at all times and no matter how beautiful our country is, it is the pocket which determines ones holiday destination.

Whilst in London, I took a couple of hours off to visit the British Museum with its wonderful exhibits. But I came away confused – of all the exhibits I saw, very few were British; most seemed to be Roman or Greek or Egyptian or other such exotic places. It is little wonder that many museums are, so far, resisting the pressure to have artefacts returned to their country of origin; such a move would likely empty this museum. Perhaps its name should include a word which has become very popular in Zambia of late – British Plunder which can be shortened to something else well known to us – BP.

On the subject of BP, Lusaka’s motorists may have noticed that there has been a change of management at what is still known as Van’s Motors in Longacres, but which I now understand is called BP Longacres. Van’s Motors has been run by the same family since 1953 (yes, fifty years). Until 15 November that is. The descendants of old Mr Van, who have been managing the station for the last nine or so years, were given notice that their franchise with BP was being terminated on the grounds that they had failed to run the BP Express Shop attached to the fuel station adequately. This poses many questions:

- do we in Zambia need such shops which are open 24 hours a day? I don’t believe we have a 24-7 shopping culture in this country

- is it possible to as much as breakeven when one has to cover the costs of people working on nightshift, the additional security required at night, when one is required to purchase ones stocks from a specified wholesaler whose goods are in the region of 10% higher than other wholesalers or when a percentage of turnover is to be paid to the franchisor?

- what should be the core business of franchise holders – pumping gas or retailing? I would have thought pumping gas.

It is still a matter of speculation who is going to be taking over this franchise – perhaps somebody’s brother or perhaps an ex-employee; perhaps even an ex-employee who already holds one franchise but has been unable to make it pay. If it is the latter, an ex-employee, one then has to ask the question of how this ex-employee has managed to accumulate sufficient funds to finance the purchase of fuel stocks upfront? Or perhaps this is a new concept in pension payments? I wonder if we will ever know the answers to these questions?

It is good to see that during the past few weeks someone has suddenly woken up to the fact that the rains are almost upon us and that unless some serious work is done and done quickly, we will shortly have enormous craters once again appearing on our roads. Last week, areas needing repair on the Kafue Road were being marked out and I expect that we shall shortly see the potholes being repaired. Although they will have to hurry up. But sadly, I believe that what they are doing is too little, too late – take a good look at this road and you will see that there a many cracks in the surface. Even a small amount of rain is going to seep through the cracks and in no time we will have potholes opening up. The Kafue Road was opened in 1993 and it is normal to seal roads every six years. We are now running late, so much so that unless some action is taken urgently, this road will become the Late Kafue Road.

On a positive note, this month will see the opening of the Arcades Shopping Centre along the Great East Road. This centre has been built by some local entrepreneurs who have put their money where their mouths are and have invested their profits locally rather than shipping them out of the country. Again we say Well Done!!

The centre will comprise shops selling items normally found at such centres – the 4 B’s (books, booze, banks, a butchery) and the 4 C’s (clothing, chemist, crafts and cellphones) amongst other things. And all just in time for you to get down there for your Christmas shopping.

There are also various restaurants and a supermarket, but what I think is going to be of most interest to readers is the entertainment – a bowling alley which is a first in Lusaka, in fact a first in Zambia and the return of the silver screen, after a twenty year absence. The cinemas will be run by Ster Kinekor which should mean that we will be able to see the latest movies with the rest of the world rather than having to wait until they are released on video. And nothing beats the big screen.

At the time of going to press, there is still much work to be done at Arcades and very few of the tenants took us up on the offer to give us a short write-up on what they will be selling. We assumed that this is because they are all extremely busy with final shop fittings, getting the merchandise in stock and training staff.

But do take a trip down there in the next few weeks and see what is on offer. We are sure there will be many surprises in store for you.

All that remains to be said now is to thank our readers and advertisers for their support over the last year and to wish you a pleasant festive season and a prosperous 2004.