Zambian Woman is RETOSA Head

Tourism Council of Zambia (TCZ) executive director Josephine Mehl has scored a duet. She has become the first woman and the first Zambian to chair Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (RETOSA). Mehl was elected at the RETOSA meeting held in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city from November 5 to 7, 2005.

RETOSA is a tourism organ of Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). It markets and promotes both the national tourist organizations and the private sector in the southern Africa’s 14-nation body.

RETOSA (and SADC members) are Angola, Botswana, Congo D.R., Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique and Namibia. Others are Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

But RETOSA does things a little differently from SADC. It allows individual member countries to attract tourists using competitive advantage. RETOSA assists countries to market individual tourism opportunities and uniqueness.

For example Malawi is dubbed the “warm heart of Africa” while Zambia remains uniquely “the real Africa”. But I like to think of Zambia safari as “Africa’s best kept secret” because of its relatively unknown safari gems. Africa’s friendly people and southern Africa adventure centre near the Victoria Falls.