Five million guests by 2031: the Vice-President's funfair speech puts a number on culture — and treats it as an engine, not a sideshow

The speech was delivered at a funfair, but the number in it was serious. Vice-President Mutale Nalumango has reaffirmed the Government's target of attracting five million tourists, positioning culture and tourism as drivers of inclusive growth — through strategic investment, an enabling regulatory environment and partnerships with the private sector and local communities. The remarks, read on her behalf by Ministry of Tourism Permanent Secretary Evans Muhanga at the official opening of the sixth Diplomatic Funfair in Lusaka, framed cultural exchange as a platform for diplomacy, trade and mutual understanding, ZANIS reports.

The trajectory underneath the target is real, even if the gap is wide. International arrivals climbed from 554,290 in 2021 to 2.3 million in 2025; the Government says the country crossed two million this year and is working toward 2.5 million by its end. The United States is now the leading source market with 61,586 arrivals, followed by China at 55,008, with the United Kingdom — long the top market — third at 40,290. Tourism contributed about US$700 million last year against a US$1 billion target for 2026; the longer-range goal is a billion-dollar industry and five million arrivals by 2031, under the Grow Zambia Agenda.

The state's levers have been liberalisation and digitisation: more than 167 countries now enjoy visa-free entry, and ministry non-tax revenue has risen from K131 million in 2021 to K473 million in 2025, helped by the Government Service Bus and ZamPortal payment rails. The 2026 budget gave the sector K1.5 billion for infrastructure, wildlife management and marketing. The funfair's theme — "Zambia moves you: connecting culture and inspiring the future" — is the soft-power version of the same strategy: sell the country as an experience, then count the receipts.

The caution writes itself. Five million arrivals would more than double last year's number in six years, on aviation capacity, lodge beds and roads that do not yet exist at that scale; and targets in this sector have been revised before — the three-million-by-2026 goal of earlier strategies has quietly become two-and-a-half. What the funfair speech signals is not that the number is near, but that the Government intends to keep saying it until the infrastructure catches up with the slogan.

Sources: Lusaka Times/ZANIS, "Govt targets five million tourists as engine for growth" (4 Oct 2026); News Diggers, "Zambia set to hit 2.5m tourist target by end of 2026" (3 Sep 2026); World Business Journal interview with Tourism PS Evans Muhanga (Aug 2026); India Outbound on the 2026 targets and ZATEX (Mar 2026); ZNBC on the Grow Zambia tourism drive (2026).