Zambia’s tourism pitch has always had a paradox at its heart. The country owns one of the wonders of the world and three of Africa’s great wilderness systems, yet it draws a fraction of the visitors that lesser-endowed neighbours pull in. The scenery was never the problem; the roads to it were. At ZATEX 2026, the government framed tourism not as a leisure sector but as a diversification strategy, and set numbers against the ambition that make the paradox impossible to ignore.
The Target: A Number With a Deadline
Vice-President Mutale Nalumango used the opening of ZATEX 2026 to put a stake in the ground: 2.5 to 3 million international visitors and more than US$1bn in tourism revenue by 2031. A target with a date attached is a different instrument from an aspiration. It can be tracked, missed or hit, and it forces the supporting investment to be specific.
The framing as a diversifier is the strategically important part. For an economy whose fortunes have risen and fallen with the copper price, a credible second engine is not a luxury. Tourism earns hard currency, spreads income into rural districts that mining never reaches, and employs at a scale and skill mix that complements rather than competes with the extractive sector.
*A visitor target with a deadline is a diversification policy, not a brochure line.*
The Bottleneck: Why the Roads Are the Strategy
The most consequential detail in Nalumango’s announcement was not the headline number but the road upgrades to South Luangwa, Kafue and Lower Zambezi. This is where Zambian tourism has historically lost the contest. The parks are extraordinary; reaching them has too often meant a punishing drive or an expensive charter that prices out all but the premium traveller.
Access is the entire game in safari tourism. A park that is hard to reach caps its own visitor numbers regardless of how spectacular it is. By naming specific access routes to three flagship parks, the strategy targets the actual constraint rather than the marketing symptom. Easier access lowers the cost of a Zambian trip, widens the addressable market beyond the high-end traveller, and lets existing lodges fill more beds across more of the year.
*The fastest route to more visitors runs through the road, not the advertisement.*
The 24-Hour Layer: Extending the Spend
Tourism was also tied to the broader 24-hour-economy push that runs through Zambia’s 2026 policy agenda. The logic is straightforward: a destination that effectively closes at dusk leaves revenue on the table. Extending the productive day means restaurants, transport, markets and entertainment that keep a visitor spending after dark, and that lengthen the chain of local businesses earning from each arrival.
For an operator, this is where the opportunity broadens beyond lodges and tour firms. A 24-hour economy around tourism pulls in hospitality, ground transport, food, crafts and services — the small and medium enterprises that capture the on-the-ground spend. The visitor target, in that sense, is really a demand forecast for a much wider set of businesses than the safari trade alone.
The Read: Ambition Anchored in Infrastructure
What distinguishes the ZATEX 2026 framing from past tourism rhetoric is that the ambition is anchored to infrastructure rather than to slogans. A 2.5-to-3-million-visitor goal is meaningful only if the roads, the night-time economy and the investment climate move with it, and the announcement at least names those dependencies.
The measured view is positive but conditional. The target is achievable if the road upgrades to South Luangwa, Kafue and Lower Zambezi are actually delivered and maintained, and if the 24-hour push translates into real operating conditions rather than a phrase. For a Zambian business, the decision the announcement should prompt is whether to position now, ahead of an access-led visitor build-up, in the hospitality and service layers that stand to capture the spend. Build the road, and the visitors — and the businesses that serve them — follow.
