As part of concerted efforts at growing its tourism and hospitality industry to sustainable levels, Zambia is set to host the second edition of the Travel, Hospitality, and Tourism Education Summit (ZITHS).
The summit starts tomorrow, April 15-17, 2024 at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, city.
The event also is a three-day dialogue platform that convenes educators, employers, policymakers, and cooperating partners to address the knowledge and skills gaps hindering the development of tourism and its sub sectors.
The event, which is in collaboration with UN Tourism, has set its theme as ‘’Bridging the human capital gap in Africa’s tourism development: Aligning learning to industry needs in the AfCFTA era.
The summit will feature many enlightening activities including plenary sessions, fireside, parallel sessions, video sessions among others.
The summit would be graced by the presence of Minister of Education,Hon. Douglas Siakalima – MP, Minister of Tourism Hon. Rodney Sikumba – MP, the guest of honor, who will also deliver the keynote address.
Mulemwa Moongwa, the Chairperson of ZITHS, will open the summit, amid world class facilitators and resource persons including; Wellington Chibebe of International Labour Organization, Elcia Grandcourt, UN Tourism Regional Director Africa, representative of Cambridge University, among others.
The plenary sessions are a must-attend due to the topical issues to be discussed including; State of Travel, Hospitality and Tourism Education, Building the Tourism Workforce Pipeline: Integration into the school system, among others.
Others are Sue Moffat, Cambridge Assessment; Ed Katsl of the American Hotels and Lodging Education Institute (AHELI); Kudzayi Nheweyembwa of Hilton Hotel, Doris McDougall of Doris Bedrock, among others.
The Fireside Chat on My Accidental Tourism Career by Carole Mckellar and Innocent Ngombwa are worth attending as well as presentations by Aldo Busin of UN Tourism on “Strengthening branding skills and destination management capacities to boost Africa’s tourism competitiveness and attract investments and Carole Mckellar on Careers in MICE for Africa.
UN Tourism will further spice the summit with its video message, network sessions and wellness breaks.
It would be recalled that ZITHS worked with the Curriculum Development Centre under the Ministry of Education to introduce, for the first time ever, Travel and Tourism as a subject pathway in the Zambian school system.
In addition, based on the feedback from employers, ZITHS re-introduced an apprenticeship programme that allowed 50 learners to undergo workplace training financed through a private public partnership with Diageo products.
