PRIME Minister Dr Moeketsi Majoro says poor tourism product development is the main reason why the sector remains untapped but with a lot of potential.

He said this on Wednesday during a special virtual seminar on the revival of Lesotho’s tourism sector.

The seminar was organised by the government of Lesotho in partnership with the World Bank, the African Development Bank (ADB) and the UN World Tourism Organisation.

The objective was to analyse the current challenges, opportunities and priority reforms to revive and revitalise the country’s tourism and hospitality sector.

It further explored the country’s local, regional and international competitiveness to attract tourists and investments in light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his opening remarks, the Prime Minster alluded to product development as a long time problem that has seen the country’s tourism sector failing to make an impact, particularly in attracting international visitors.

“Product development has been a problem for a long time. Our sides are spectacular but not animated sufficiently to encourage people to want to come back. There are a number of passionate tourism product developers in the country but they have not been able to develop this sword after product.

“We have to be able to package all cultural heritage and other things to encourage international people to visit Lesotho. I hope today’s event will inject a seed to attract investors to come together and to develop this untapped tourism potential in Lesotho. At the moment, people come to Lesotho but there is not always much more to come back for,” Dr Majoro said.  

He, however, agreed that apart from inadequate expertise, access to finance is a major problem stopping the sector from realising its full potential.