Travelpedia

Price Guide Understanding what the general price for a product in Malawi is extremely important, as generally, a pale skin complexion will increase the offered price by double sometimes triple from the normal price. This unfortunate trait occurs from when the few tourist that do visit Malawi posses a lack of understanding of the haggling culture. Similarly, tourists often believe that it is mean to the shop merchant to try and lower the price and so they pay the extremely inflated 'tourist' price, which merely reinforces the behavior. This approach has many detrimental affects on the livelihoods of the people of Malawi. By offering a short term increase in wealth/income, the tourist is distorting the self-sufficiency of the Malawian people, creating an unhealthy dependency on foreign aid. This topic can be debated or explored in such a brief manner, further reading and research is encouraged to fully explore the predicament tourists are often placed in when travelli...