The Government of Zambia is actively seeking to broaden its tourism skills development initiatives through an emerging partnership with Shaanxi Tourism Cuisine Professional College, a leading vocational training institution in north-western China.
Zambia’s Minister of Tourism, Rodney Sikumba, confirmed the move during a recent visit to the college in Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi Province. The visit included an inspection of the institution’s training facilities and discussions with senior management to identify potential areas of cooperation designed to strengthen Zambia’s tourism and hospitality sectors.
The Minister noted that Zambia has placed increasing emphasis on industry-focused, hands-on training to equip its workforce with practical expertise aligned with evolving global and regional tourism needs. According to Sikumba, discussions centred on the development of joint programmes that include shared certification pathways, faculty exchanges, and the integration of technology transfer mechanisms into curricula.
While culinary studies and hospitality management remain core areas of potential cooperation, the scope of the proposed collaboration is broader. Sikumba highlighted sectors such as airline services, creativity and innovation development, hotel operations, food laboratory testing, and mixology as additional domains where Zambian students and industry professionals could benefit from applied training models.
“Tourism is not only a driver of foreign exchange earnings but also a platform for skills development and cultural exchange,” Sikumba remarked. He underscored the importance of moving beyond narrow conceptualisations of tourism to embrace its multidimensional character in Africa, which encompasses heritage, creativity, sustainability, and transnational collaboration.
Shaanxi Tourism Cuisine Professional College, established in 1994, is widely regarded as one of China’s foremost vocational institutions specialising in tourism and culinary training. Its long-standing expertise and practical orientation position it as a potential partner in Zambia’s quest to modernise its training infrastructure.
The Zambian Ministry of Tourism has reiterated its interest in co-developing modern training modules and facilitating internship opportunities for Zambian students. Such initiatives, officials believe, could not only elevate industry standards domestically but also enhance Zambia’s regional competitiveness in Southern Africa’s wider tourism economy.
This initiative reflects a growing trend of African states engaging with Asian vocational institutions in a manner that resists singular dependency narratives, opting instead for diversified forms of cooperation that respond to local contexts. For Zambia, the envisioned partnership represents both a practical step towards skills enhancement and a symbolic gesture of South-South collaboration that situates tourism within a broader developmental agenda.
