A youth advocacy group, Youth Hub, has organised a two day trip to Lake Malawi and Liwonde National Park in a bid to encourage and promote local tourism for locals, particularly the youth.
Youth Hub
Speaking in an interview with Nyasa Times, the group’s Patron, Humphreys Kapito said the two day trip particularly aims at promoting local tourism among youths through affordable block tours to various places of interests and attraction across the country.
He said it had always been the group’s objective to inculcate a culture of travelling and sites seeing among the youths in this country so that they are the first ones to appreciate the beauty of our country before tourists from other countries.
“Malawi is a country of staggering beauty. The hills; the mountains; the valleys; and the sunny smiles of the people combine to make this country a rare gem of tourism just waiting to be discovered and developed. We therefore want to encourage our youths to take up the role of tourism ambassadors to sell the ‘brand Malawi’ and what it has to offer to the world,” said Kapito
He said Youth Hub is interested in the conservation of the environment particularly the promotion of the green planet as the country’s quest to reduce its carbon footprint. In particular, he said the group is mostly focusing on the promotion of ecotourism in order to help increase local and international tourism traffic without disrupting the configuration of the natural environment.
Kapito said the group is introducing the concept of ‘explore Malawi’ with the aim of equipping the youth in this country with detailed knowledge of all tourist attraction through their own exploration and visitations.
He said Youth Hub will help them become better advocates of the concept designed to make to flaunt Malawi’s many attractive tourist destinations to the world.
“As a country and as a people, we need to begin to think large in terms of what we can contribute to the country to make it a better place for the youth as well as the next generations. For example, the tourism sector has been touted as the industry that has the potential to replace tobacco as a major foreign exchange earner for this country.
“We therefore need to start asking critical questions as to what we are doing as citizens in order to make that happen. Youth Hub wants to ensure that the youths are not left out in these processes,” he said.
He added that this trip is therefore one step in the direction of making youths in this country participate in promoting ecotourism. Among the activities that have been lined up for this trip are site viewings at the magnificent Lake Malawi National Park in Cape Maclear, Mangochi, and also game viewing at Liwonde National Park.
“This is a ‘double header’ in that we will cover two destinations in two days from November 2 to November 3, 2019. The trip is open to Youth Hub paid up members as well as non-members at small fee of 19,000 kwacha to cover the costs of transport, meals, boat rides and accommodation. 0888 407 486 is the phone number that anyone can call to get more information on this trip,” said Kapito.
Youth Hub is increasingly becoming a powerful advocacy group in this country in as far as conserving the environment and promoting ecotourism is concerned.
Not long ago, the group called for the naming and shaming of environmental polluters in Blantyre industrial areas and also advocated for stringent measures to help curb the rampant deforestation taking place in Mulanje Mountain.
