To

The State President of Malawi Dr Lazarus Mc Carthy CHAKWERA

The Vice President of Malawi and minister of Economic planning Saulos CHILIMA

The minister of Health Khumbize Kandodo CHIPONDA

The Minister of Tourism Michaël BIZWICK

The Minister of Homeland security Richard Chimwendo BANDA

All the concerned people

The 17th of June 2021,

Dear President, Ministers and any decision maker. On the 15th of June 2021, the Malawian Tourism sector received the press statement about the closure of Malawi airports and land borders to all travelers except returning citizens, residents and essential travelers.

For many years the accomodation and restaurant owners, the tour operators, the leasure centers, the reserve managers... are working hard to improve the attractiveness and the offer for the travellers.

From March 2020, the Tourism sector has been particularly suffering everywhere in the world. In Malawi, the consequences are numerous: more than 40% of the lodges definitively closed their doors; many workers in the sector lost their jobs and the many suppliers lost their customers. Those and their families are now starving.

Despite those difficulties, the last few months some travelers came back to Malawi and gave us some hope. We were awaiting for improvement of travel conditions, which had to come soon. You can understand the press statement was met with lack of understanding by all of us.

Nevertheless, we know that some measures had to and have to be taken to avoid any outbreak. We believe that it is possible to find solutions to protect the Malawian citizens against the Covid 19 and to save the Malawian tourism sector. Those solutions have to be found urgently.

Here you find proposal for safe tourism:

• Less as 72H Negative PCR test and/or vaccination certificate for any people coming in the country (citizens, resident and tourists)
• Medical examination at borders (symptoms, temperature) + rapid test
• Filling of a travel surveillance form with all the details (accommodation) of the trip expected and this to be able to follow the travelers and to cross their presence at some location with an increasing of cases.
• Distribution of a good information about the rules which have to be respected during the trip: social distance, wearing of mask when the social distance is not possible,…
• Quarantine at designed location of any people (citizens, residents, foreigners) presenting a positive test or symptoms.
• Support of the tourism sector to implement prevention measures: distribution of frontal thermometers, informative posters, disinfection solutions, vaccination of all the workers of this sector…
• Deny the entry to anybody coming from the countries with big increasing of cases and who are not yet vaccinated. Only the nationals or residents coming from those countries could get the possibility to stay in quarantine in designed location before joining their relatives.

As actors of the Tourism sector we beg the Malawian Government to consider the consequences of their decisions on our sector to find the best solutions for a safe and sustainable tourism.

Respectfully

The Malawian Tourism actors