Survey: Europeans don’t know country called Zambia
- Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 14:19
- Breaking News
- 53 comments
A survey conducted by the National Tourism Board and the Tourism Council of Zambia through the Cornell University in the United Kingdom has revealed that about 60 percent of people in the west do not know about Zambia’s existence.
Tourism Board Chairman Timothy Mushibwe says the survey has also proved that the current brand that Zambia is using to market itself as one of the best tourism destinations is not effective.
Mr Mushibwe said this at a briefing to announce the launch of a new project that will be conducted by National Tourism Board and the Tourism Council of Zambia with the support of school of Hotel Administration department of Cornell University of the United Kingdom.
He said the school has been brought on board to package and design persuasive and attractive catch lines to compell more people to visit Zambia.
Mr Mushibwe observed that the current Zambia the Real Africa brand did not contribute to its marketing efforts but has instead left misconceptions among Zambia’s potential tourists.
And Cornell school of hotel administration marketing Associate Professor Rob Kwortnik says a six member student delegation from the school is embarking on new ways to analyze every facility that Zambia has and how best to market them.
He says there is need to devise a brand that will set the country apart if Zambia is to sustain its tourism market which attracts about 850 thousand tourists per year as compared to other African states.
Mr Kwortnik however said that the picture portrayed of Africa by the western media as a poor, dilapidated and war tone continent remains a barrier to Zambia’s attainment of its targeted market for tourism.
Meanwhile the National Tourism Board says it is putting in place mechanisms to attract visitors that will be attending the 2010 FIFA world cup tournament in South Africa starting in June.
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Sad, but there’s hope.
true..iam in german and very few of my collegues know anything about zambia,not even its proper location.the only thing they will say they have heard about zambia is a corrupt former president
that goes to show how poor there education system is!After i can tell u almost all the nations in the world.
Cornell University in the UK?
Anyway humbling admission this is a right place to start from
I suppose when you think about it saying ‘the real Africa’, is not very helpful when you are triing to market your country. I rather feel this exercise should be carried out on annual basis. It seems that we have not capitalised as much as we could have on our tourism especially when one considers the Zimbabwe crisis.
Dont think white people are very clever or intelligent. For your own information some of them dont even know their own street names!
its becoz of a tourist president and plunderer..too bad..sale Zambia you chaps!!
Inhotep, Chizungu Bwana. Does this story say Cornell is in UK or that the survey was conducted in UK?
This is true, I’m European and my son’s father is from Zambia, and many people ask me where my son’s dad comes from, when I say “Zambia”, 50% ask “Oh, Gambia?” And I have to repeat, “no, ZAMbia”, and they’re like “oooh…” And I can tell most of them don’t have a clue. Many also ask “where in Africa is it?” But there’s absolutely nothing in the news here about Zambia, no marketing at all as far as tourism goes etc. So how COULD they know?!
And the statement that “white people don’t even know their own street name” where on earth does that claim come from??? HAhah! That’s absurd! Well, whatever, it’s really good that this matter is being brought to light. More tourism equals more money to Zambia.
Zambia National Tourist Board has been in existence since I was a kid & it is only today they are getting close to understanding their customers! Tells a lot about the lack of seriousness in the nation, especially appointments. Even a survey among the Zambians could give you a lot of helpful information – but who is going to pose the question? We’d rather sell even our trees to a muzungu without insisting on him replanting trees as if we don’t have any educated people!
Kalembwe
The story sounds like Cornell is in the UK. Its you who doesnt understand chizungu. Moreover, they cannot say west if the survey was just done in UK. Read and understand the whole story and not word by word only.
But our president has been everywhere. So how come they don’t know about us. We need change. Rupiah banda is the worst and waste president this country has ever had. Even the thief Chiluba was better
What have done to make our country known? Our country can not be farmiliar to countries which have decent reputations. What do you expect when you only attract investors from China? Ask your selves why Tanzania or Malawi is well known than our country.
Conducted from UK does not mean restricted to UK. What wrong with freeman on earth. But then, let debate the substance which is that Zambian can not attract tourists because the country is not known despite having one big tourist rupiah bwezani banda
For Americans it’s worse. When I move around and say I come from Zambia, the next question is “Which state is Zambia in?” These people don’t know shit about other countries. But remember we were made to study European history, world geography and the like in secondary school. Some of the stuff we learnt was useful but most of it was irrelevant. ZNTB, do your homework!
ITS RB AND MMD WHO ARE NOT KNOWN IN CHINA…FOR SURE EVEN IN KALABO….THE PACT WILL MAKE ZAMBIA IDENTFIED IN THE REGION….FTJ IS THE ONE WHO MADE A BLACK COUNTRY IN THE WORLD….BECAUSE OF CORRUPTION TOO MUCH…
Mbimbe, you are saying and I quote ‘Which state is Zambia in?’ From that statement can’t you deduce how ignorant those Americans are! People, we are more educated than these so-called white people! Get a grip man those pipo who u envy so much are just dull, racist,ignorant and bigoted!!!!!
Remember the brand ‘Zambia in the Sun’? it was very effective in the 60 and early 70s. I remember ordering a colourful catalogue from the Tourist Board, when I was in grade 5. I dont remember the last time I saw a colourful catalogue such as one I had at primary school.
Our embassys are also to blame for this sad situation. To alot of people Zambia doesnt exist anywhere in the world. My former lecturer in SouthAfrica wanted to outshine others by indicating that Zambia was part of Zimbabwe. Others were saying the other name for Angola is Zambia. Talk about KK they know him, but they cant link him to Zambia.
When I am in Dubai no matter how good I talk about Zambia, to them its insignificant. But the moment I mention Uganda and Ethiopia, they will show interest.
Probably we can now justify the reason why our president has chosen to leave in outer space.
A young adult black British woman of West Indian descent once asked me where I was from. ‘Zambia’, I replied. ‘Where is that?’ She enquired. ‘Somewhere in Africa.’ I said. ‘Is Nelson Mandela your President?’ ‘No.’ ‘But I thought Nelson Mandela was the President of Africa?’ Zambia is little known among Europeans aged 50 and below. But I meet lots of elderly Europeans who know a great deal about Northern Rhodesia, Zambia and Kayunda, our first President. But, you cannot blame them. The news that comes out of Africa is always bad news. It is better not not to be well known, because in that way, it means you have good news. How can we market tourism better? Simple. Invite celebrities to do things in Zambia and cameras will follow them. Get well know reporters to do documentaries on ‘Kuomboka’, Ncwala (especially where Mpezeni drinks raw cow blood!), Umutomboko, caKwela makumbi, Initiation ceremony etc and you will have very good publicity. Tourists are not interested in Sun hotel, they want the real. raw African life and we could market that.
Ima, you are challenging me that some white pipo dont know even their street names. Well I have news for you. How many Americans even know thier capital city? Sally Palin was quoted as saying ‘Isn’t Africa a country?’. This is public record. Ask an average American pupil where the Appllachian mountains are and I guess their answer would be ‘Is it somewhere in Canada?’.
The Saint, that goes to show how ignorant your friend is. And these same whites talk about a global village. Please, what global village?
While greater efforts could be made to advertise the beauty of Zambia – I suspect this is more the result of general ignorance about geography.
If a British person wants to know about how to get about in London, one good website is http://www.zhcl.org.uk. This is supposed to be a Zambian mission abroad but all it has is information about London! I hope Prof. Lukwesa does something about this. Zambian consulate in Canada has nothing. Probably the best is Pretoria, then Brussels and a bit for Rome. The rest are totally unhelpful. The Washington site is the most improved.
Goes to show how effective Bwezani’s trips are!
…I’m kangwa katongo from Zambia…is that near Nigeria?
Mbimbe. ‘No matter what you do in the rat race, success is not guaranteed, but if you do nothing failure is’- Paul Ulasien. We’ve been teaching our children in schools about Otto Von Bismarck, etcetera. Before long, they will be taught the biography of communist leader Mao Zedong. Chinese will be taught alongside English or, worse still, the former will replace the latter as a medium of communication in schools. Oh, what a rat race!
On “Mr Kwortnik however said that the picture portrayed of Africa by the western media as a poor, dilapidated and war tone continent remains a barrier to Zambia’s attainment of its targeted market for tourism” who should re-brand Africa and Zambias? Is it the Westerners or us Zambians/Africans? Let us do our job please.
As for “Meanwhile the National Tourism Board says it is putting in place mechanisms to attract visitors that will be attending the 2010 FIFA world cup tournament in South Africa starting in June,” why are we trying to ride on the South Africans, cant we do our own stuff?
Have a blessed day all.
_
Matt 6:33
A peaceful country like mine, Zambia goes unnoticed on the world stage for a simple reason. its a peace loving nation and we have had no civil war ever since. Even our attainment to independence was not like that of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola, etc. Also its important that we have no oil like Nigeria and we are a landlocked nation. Alistoto alluded to Uganda and Ethiopia, why? Because we had a dictator, Idi Amin Dada, as president and that is what whites want to hear. Who does not know that western media descended on Ethiopia when half the population was almost wiped by famine (njala, tala) in the early 90s? Western country enjoy seeing us die unlike living in peace and traquility.
For Volcanologist, he doesn’t care less even if they do not know of my country Zambia. Am happy that the 850,000+ tourism who come to my country yearly are genuine tourist who have embraced the whole world as home. White especially those not from the Nordic countries are rascist. Imagine my relative in grade seven at Kaunga Mashi Basic School, Shangombo District learn about Europe with its countries and pipo and know alot about the same European who do not know us. Its foolish for them to say that they don’t know Zambia.Again if we are to be analytical to the article, the consulting firm engaged by Tourism Board of Zambia is suspect by paiting Europe not to know Zambia. That how the commercial world works when you asked to do consultancy. Make results negative so that your further asked to come up with a strategy at a huge fee. Have been involved in this bushit espencially when i work with European so called experts. That how we survive in consultancy world.
It is good that the pipo responsible for marketing tourism have realised this and making corrective measures.Mungulugugulu H Mwaangathis Zambia is far from alone in this problem of not being very well known. Most of Southern and central Africa have this problem. But the issue should be what should be done yes lets rebrand and please offer yourself as part of the exercise..As for the riding on RSA, that is great idea though way too late, however you should recognise that in this global fast moving world, you would be foolish not to try to capitalise on such an event like the world cup. The world cup has presented itslf as a comparative advantage for countries in the region
Timoth Mushiwe, act like a grown up person and a seasoned profession for that matter. What do you expect to get out of those inexperienced students. The path you have taken is worse than the current one. Those students will only use that exercise for academic purposes thats it. That academician you are calling a professor will only use that research for his paper put it on shelf. Can’t you learn from serious countries that advertise on renowned international media with global audience. Learn from SA, Angola, Greece etc. You expect Zambia to be known when all you do is place adverts in the Post which is only read in Lsk and CB. Stop acting like a child and find better ways of marketing Zambia. There are already well established marketing channels as opposed to that little known University approach
what have we done to merit being recognised? it’s easy to portray people as ignorant but if we do not make any impact in this world then why should we be known? Our greatest recent achievements are to win Big Brother, Project fame and now Face of Africa! Lets work to better ourselves and earn recognition for achievements rather than insulting people for not knowing about us.
Infact some mails find themselves in Gambia.There is nothing to write home abt despite having the mighty victoria falls.
The truth sometimes pains, but comeon ladies and gentlemen, why should anyone know about Zambia. We know about UK because of our history, actually we speak their language, we know about America, Europe or Asia probabaly because we use one or several items they manufacture, or we had a scholarship from them, or we like their food, football etc. So why do you think they should know Zambia? zambia is just one of the 193 Countries in the world and unless one has a special interest, it will be futile to know it.
If I may pose a question to you bloggers, which continent is a country called Bhutan and what do you know about this country? Or what do you know about a country called liechtenstein?
The EYE, you are very fun. You know the post you made ‘I’m kangwa katongo from Zambia…is that near Nigeria?” which is an advert by Zain really sums the debate. Even us in Zambia lknow that we are unknown. Foreign own companies like Zain exploit this and use it for advertising. How shameful. We need to kick out rupiah Banda
Ok. Lets kill the president by bombing the plane. then we rape the women and amputate children while matcheting old people. Lets do tribal cleansing and genital mutilations.That way we shall be more popular than Rwanda
Chelo,lets just market the mighty victoria falls using the right media.Its one of the seven wonders of the world ,am sure with the right publicity,things can turn around.U know what south african re busy telling the world that the vic falls is actually in their country.
How do you expect drunken people to attract tourists? At every public occassion, the dagga smokers and drunken lumpens, spend most of the time bad mouthing other Zambians and all potential tourists are put off. Stop dagga smokers and drunken lumpens at public functions and you will get more people wanting to hear about Zambia. I get lots of people asking me about interesting places to visit in Zambia and I tell them. On the other hand, most Zambians don’t really know about the real nice places in Zambia and therefore cannot help visitors. Tell the govt to stop foreign trips and use that fuel for tourism promotions. Ubututu fwe ma Zambians!!! Jealousy lot pretenders all over!!! Others kimsholi fela.
The reason is simple. Zambia does not make negative news to sale on BBC and other renouned international media. In fact its a credit. The other point is that the slogan ZAMBIA THE REAL AFRICA depicts all the negatives about Africa to be bred and present in Zambia. Think of anything bad about Africa … Con men… Thugs… Diseases…. People with tails like monkeys… Abject Poverty… War… Drug barons… dictatorship… A Failed country… Meaning Zambia is the worst country because it depicts THE REAL AFRICA
Who changed our former motto – ‘Zambia in the Sun’? It mustsurely have been Chiluba and hsi drunken lumpens and dagga smokerrs.
Yes, MS. ZNTB, GET YOUR BIG ASS WORKING. WHAT ARE YOU THERE FOR???????
The reasons are simple. Zambia does not make negative news to sale on BBC and other renouned international media. In fact its a credit. The other point is that the slogan ZAMBIA THE REAL AFRICA depicts all the negatives about Africa are present in Zambia … Con men… Thugs… Diseases…. People with tails like monkeys… Abject Poverty… War… Drug barons… dictatorship… A Failed country… and many more. Meaning Zambia is the worst country because it has all the elements THE REAL AFRICA has. The last point is that Africa is considered to be one country with its capital Kenya. And Zambia happens to be a remote village in the African Country. This country called AFRICA does not include NORTH AFRICA and SOUTH AFRICA. What a mile stone for tourism to flourish in Zambia. No wonder it is easier to market the Victoria Falls/Livingstone as part of Kenya or South Africa.
LT cornell University is NOT in UK
I think we are over-emphasizing an industry that is probably already doing the best it can given the current state of its infrastructure. I don’t think our current tourism industry can handle more than 1million visitors a year…the infrastructure is still immature. Instead of paying students from a little-known university located somewhere nobody seems to know very well, we should spend those millions on guaranteeing business loans for small-businesses that do not have any collateral to borrow money even from the so-called citizens empowerment commission. The commission is busy turning down loan applications from good business ideas just because the owners of those ideas come from unknown families and do not have collateral. If these businesses are well-supported, the country will prosper and will automatically start being noticed by the world and visitors from other countries will come! At the moment, who wants to visit a poverty-stricken country that doesn’t even have a radar system at its international airports? The principle is very simple to understand…I mean, I have heard so many times even us fellow Zambians joking that “Si unga yende kumunzi” because life mu-Lusaka yanzuna! Nobody wants to see poverty for recreation, FUILL-STOP. Tourism is recreation! Do your rough survey, countries that receive the most tourists tend to be economically and culturally more sophisticated enough to create curiosity in potential visitors. Right now, Asia is receiving tens of millions of tourists every year with very little or no marketing. Why? Because the economic and social sophistication that is taking place in Asia is enough to attract visitors without loudly marketing the place. ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS! Again, you will never find a tourist who will enjoy visiting a poor community, no matter how much you want to philosophise it. All this rubbish about hiring a professor of some silly Cornell University which they don’t even know where it is to me sounds very much like the way RUPIAH BANDA hired IMAGE CONSULTANTS in 2008. Good luck… But it is actions like these that make all of us look like idiots, which is an image that even further contributes to visitors being discouraged to visit Zambia — with this country-of-idiots image!!!!!!!!!
These bazungus enslaved us with their Geography and History only to backfire on them.It really irritates to learn that very few firnds of my know about Zed.I ve now taken it personal to teach then the location of my Zambia and so far they appreciated.I ve come to understand that its not their problem but education system.
I have been reading the British Times newspaper archives for the late 1950s to 1970. Nearly every month, there was an article on Northern Rhodesia and peri-independence Zambia. Even Mpezeni (not the present) is mentioned as one of those who was on the delegation to London to protest the Federation. The death of Sir Mwanawina (The Litunga) is also very well covered. The day Skinner and several white judges resigned the bench in Zambia after the riots that followed the acquittal of two Portuguese ‘spies’ is also covered. But from the declaration of the second Republic, mass exodus of abasungu, there are fewer and fewer articles on Zambia and more on Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. When you come to the 1980s, the news shifts to disasters, HIV/AIDS (late Kaunda’s son’s death), shortages of essential commodities and the ailing economy take precedence. Of course, television took over after this. In post UNIP era, the most internationally interviewed minister in the shortest possible time was Dr Guy Scott, as Agriculture Minister! What does this mean? I leave the interpretation to yourselves.
Hahaha,
Laughing at the comments. zambians can be so immotional.
Somebody tell me the exact location of slovenia,tibet or the capital of samoa??!!or name their presidents!!i bet most of u crying here have no clue!!you cant expect europeans to know the whole map of the world!zambia has not done anything negative or positive that is out of the ordinary.i’m from kenya but the moment i read this article i had to open my atlas to be sure of zambia..
Mushibwe and Co are just dreaming. You dont need a PHD to understand what needs to be done to market zambia.Win the Africa cup and qualify for world cup and every one will know Zambia.
Yona, you must be one of those ignorant, shallow minded and lousy people who call themselves Kenyans. My brother is married to a Kenyan and she even speaks one of our local languages. Who the he** do u think u are?
You should have asked them about Northern Rodesia that would register
The poster “Come on in – its Great in Zambia” with the picture of a hippo in the water was a very popular poster in the 70′s and one saw it in alot of Travel Agents overseas. Perhaps it should be used again. Its probably better not to have all those arrogant tourists trampling all over Zambia anyway – they change things – and we are a peaceable lot. Lets keep it that way.
Remember mbesuma in Europe then Zambia will be known to you
Responses to posts from someone who attended the press conference:
- The Cornell University School of Hotel Administration is a leader in the hospitality industry with regard to education and hospitality research. It is located in Ithaca, New York USA. It is unfortunate that several articles were written and published without proper fact checking.
-the students are Masters students, which means that many have had several years of experience before returning to school. The team was strategically comprised of students who have worked for tourim boards in the past and / or within the hospitality sector. Further, they come from all parts of the world, specifically, Singapore, India and USA.
- the survey was conducted worldwide (with a focus on US, UK and South Africa as those are the key feeder markets (from a leisure perspective) into Zambia). Further, the survey attendees were a highly educated population; therefore, indicating the need for Zambia to produce positive press in relation to the rest of Africa.
-the resources to engage and host the team here in Zambia were extremely minimal in comparison to hiring a consultancy agency. This was a creative solution to overcome the limited budget.
-many key stakeholders from both the private and public sector have been involved in this project bringing in a variety of backgrounds and insights into the new brand.