Projects - Economy - Tourism

Tourism can provide livelihoods for local people through jobs in accommodation and catering, acting as guides and sales of crafts. Dedza has considerable potential for tourism development. It has beautiful scenery and pleasant climate and is only 50 miles from the capital city, Lilongwe. Within the district there are established visitor centres such as the Dedza Pottery and the Kungoni Centre of Culture and Art at Mua. Other sites of interest include historic rock art and four forest reserves.

We are assisting development in a number of ways, with the involvement of the Hotel School at Norwich City College.

In 2008, 10 students and 2 lecturers spent two weeks in Dedza. They collected information for a website to promote tourism in the area. They also ran a training session for local businesses to explain the type of service that tourists would expect. A further visit during 2009 is being planned.

Chongoni rock art

Beautiful scenery

The tourism website was built by Steria Ltd, the computer services supplier for Norwich City Council and launched in March 2009. It includes information on places of interest, accommodation, restaurants and facilities such as banks, shops, petrol stations, etc that a tourist might need – www.visitdedza.com.

We are funding the Malawi College of Forestry and Wildlife, which is located in Dedza, to train staff of the District Assembly in eco-tourism. These staff will teach community groups to act as guides for visitors to the forest reserves. The College will also work with the local groups to identify routes for walks and interesting flora and fauna. This work will be advanced by the 2009 visit of City College students and also of Easton College Countryside Management students.

The Chongoni Forest Reserve contains a UNESCO Listed World Heritage Site of rock paintings. We are helping the Malawi Dept of Antiquities to obtain funding to build an information centre to explain this important cultural asset to visitors. This will be located in the grounds of the Forestry and Wildlife College and will also provide information on the forest reserves.