Green, Resilient and Transformational Tourism Development Project (GREAT-TDP)

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Since the approval of the project, the Government of Zambia has been involved in dialogue, discussions, and consultations with various stakeholders on its approach for developing the tourism sector. Through these discussions and consultations several directions emerged aiming at strengthening and advancing the Government’s current approaches. These directions included the need to develop existing tourism hubs in the country to attract additional tourists and to also serve as feeders into emerging destinations. This is perfectly in line with the current scope of the project and its Development Objectives. The Government, nonetheless, wishes to add few measures to the project scope to support the development of existing tourism hubs to help in maximizing the impact of the project. The city of Livingstone was accordingly selected as the nearest hub to the target Tourism Destination Areas (TDAs) under the project. The list of proposed improvement measures in the Livingstone TDA were selected from a UKaid-funded study entitled “Livingstone Town Centre Local Area Plan (LAP)2021 – 2030”, which was developed in May 2021 by Cities and Infrastructure Growth for Zambia. The study had identified a list of measures aiming at developing Livingstone area to increase tourism activities. The Government of Zambia has requested that the top priority development measures from this study be included under the GREAT-TDP project. In addition, the Government wishes to replicate the development of Destination Plans, SESA and IIPs in another three TDAs, namely Kafue, Lower Zambezi and South Luangwa TDAs. This will boost the national planning capacity of the Government in tourism destinations and enhance the implementation of the Tourism Master plan. The proposed new activities have been grouped into three sub-components: (a) The Livingstone Town Center Development Program; (b) Roads development (the Development of the Livingstone River Drive and Loop roads in Mosi-oa-Tunya and sections treatment along Kalomo-Kafue National Park road); and(c) Destination Plans, SESA and IIPs for three additional TDAs.In addition, a Contingency Emergency Response Component (CERC) has been added. This component is embedded in the project to finance early recovery and/or specific emergency works, goods, and services in case of eligible emergencies/crises/disasters caused by natural or man-made hazards, including public health crises. This component is necessary due to the inherent risks in Zambia’s current socioeconomic and climate-related hazards, such as unexpected flooding or drought.