Assessment of the competitiveness of Lake Malawi Beaches and Its Potential for Economic Boost

The purpose of the research project is to explore the tourism competitiveness of the beaches of Lake Malawi and their impact on the economic growth through revenue and employment. The general performance of the tourism sector in Malawi and in the SADC region is poor African Development Bank (2017), World Bank (2010), World Travel and Tourism Council (2020) and Knoema (2020) hence need for the study with the focus of beaches because they represent 22% of tourism activities in Malawi ( Department of tourism report ,2021). This study is written within the theories of the tourism sustainable growth, economic growth and tourists’ psychology. The data was collected through both quantitative and qualitative by randomly using a questionnaire and non-randomly by using interview guide respectively to a sample of 331. The population of the research included the government, government institutions, lodges, international tourists, hotels, and local beach communities. The research finds that the beaches are less competitive and have less economic contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP). The study has contributed to defining tourism competitiveness, which include tourism policies and the perception of the tourists as key factors of tourism competitiveness and economic growth.