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U.S. Ambassador Launches Impact Study: “HIV/AIDS - A Unique Challenge To Zambia’s Growing Tourism Sector”

U.S. Ambassador to Zambia Carmen Martinez on Thursday March 2nd, launched a report on the Impact of HIV/AIDS on the Tourism Sector in Zambia. Representatives from the Ministry of Tourism, Environment, and Natural Resources were in attendance at the launch of this critical business research study at the Zambezi Sun Hotel in Livingstone.

The Ministry of Tourism, Environment, and Natural Resources approved the outline of the study which was commissioned by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the development assistance program between the United States Government (USG) and the Government of Zambia (GRZ). Boston University’s Center for International Health and Development conducted field research on the impact of HIV/AIDS in four sectors: health, agriculture, the judiciary, and now the recently completed volume on tourism.

Ambassador Martinez called for effective prevention, care, and treatment in fighting HIV/AIDS. She said, “…many of the costs associated with HIV/AIDS-related illness, death, and replacement of an employee can either be avoided or at least postponed by effective prevention, care, and treatment. Obviously, no amount of money in the world can help you, if you do not know your status.”

The study reveals the impact of HIV/AIDS on labor productivity, labor costs, and net benefits, as well as the costs of providing anti-retroviral drugs to employees, and opportunities to reduce the effects of HIV and AIDS in the tourism sector. The organizations surveyed included the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA), Sun International Zambia, and other tourism companies in the Livingstone area. These included smaller hotels, lodges, guesthouses, and restaurants that cater to tourists; tourist transport firms; gift and curio shops; and companies providing all types of guided tours, recreation, and adventure sports services.

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The study found that morbidity and mortality associated with HIV and AIDS can erode labor productivity by as much as half for those employees living with AIDS who are not on treatment and who stay employed. In the case of the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA), the costs of HIV/AIDS to the agency and its mission are significant. Among ZAWA employees who die of natural causes, absenteeism is as high as 18% compared to the usual 4%. In addition, there is a 62.4% reduction in night patrols in the last year of life. With the number of sick workers on the rise, healthy ZAWA employees have faced a 30% increase in their duties. In 2005, it is estimated that HIV and AIDS increased ZAWA’s labor costs by 5%. In contrast, a physician’s proscription for anti-retroviral drugs for HIV-infected employees could save ZAWA an estimated 400 million Kwacha per year.

Employees in private tourist hotels and businesses are generally younger, are known to practice unsafe sex, and are more likely to contract and transmit HIV. Furthermore, the Impact Study found that 15% of all employee terminations were due to ill health or death with the average age at death for these employees being 36 years. For medium-sized companies, HIV/AIDS increased labor costs by 2.4% equivalent to 3.9 million Kwacha per year. More than half of the private company managers interviewed expected the impact of HIV/AIDS on their company to worsen in the future.



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