MZUNI OCCASIONAL PAPERS IN TOURISM ECONOMICS PART TWO: THE NKHATA-BAY TOURISM RESEARCH USING TOURISM MULTIPLIERS: STATE OF THE ART

This paper is a continuation to Mzuni Occasional papers in Tourism Economics Part One. It critically conceptualises tourism multipliers to determine the effects of tourist spending on income, land values and employment in Nkhata-bay areas such as Chikali Beach Nkhata-bay Central, Chintheche, Bandawe and Kande. In a traditional set-up theory, a multiplier measures the relationship between an autonomous injection of expenditure into an economy and the resultant changes in incomes which may occur. Autonomous infection of expenditure can take many forms which may include, for example, increases in export trading, additional foreign investment within the economy under review, and increases in Government Investment. Each of these forms of expenditure creates a stimulus to economic activity within the affected areas for example Nkhata-bay areas, which, provided that sufficient resources are available, in this case, generated additional business turnover, households incomes and employment as will be seen in the study. Therefore, increases in tourism expenditure are merely one form of autonomous injection although they are the only type considered at present. Therefore, the main and real intention of beginning to write a series of Mzuzu University (Mzuni) occasional papers in Economics, particularly this one, is to provide a vehicle or medium for the publication of the results of the current research and for a series of researches on the social-economic impacts of tourism on the economy of Malawi, that will follow in this and impact related fields of future tourism studies. Further, the other aim is to provide Government with quantified information for making informed decision in distributing the scarce resources; while academics and students may also be reminded of the real role of tourism in the economic development particularly as tourism continues to fuel other economic sector of the country paving their way to growth areas.