Malawi has never been a country to attract masses of media coverage, and the comment "you never hear much about it" was one often made in the past. But times are changing, and little Malawi's starting to be noticed at last!

The general lack of coverage of Malawi has generally not been viewed as such a bad thing. For one, it indicates that all is safe, well and stable in Malawi since most African news stories (well most news stories from anywhere really) tend to focus on negatives  -  wars, political unrest, famine.  For another, we don't want tooo many people finding out about our hidden gem and spoiling it!  But the charms of  Malawi really do deserve to be better known.

Of course, Madonna's visits in recent years have brought the eyes of the world on to Malawi, but the global media's obsession with the world's biggest pop star isn't actually quite as deep as it once was and her more recent visits have received fairly limited attention.

What's encouraging, is that Malawi is now receiving coverage in the travel press, who are reporting on its varied and unspoilt charms as a holiday destination.

MSN Travel has had a Malawi feature on it's homepage main menu for a month or more.

Travel Africa Magazine's latest Autumn edition has a full feature on Malawi's unique Nyika National Park, where Chelinda Lodge has just re-opened

In the couple of months, there have been full length Malawi features in Real Travel (Malawi was the cover story) and Adventure Travel magazines, and another is imminent in the Daily Mail. A journalist with a Daily Telegraph commission, and one from Wanderlust magazine are due out to Malawi soon. Throw in a couple of regional newspapers and a BBC Radio 4 documentary, and its clear that both coverage and awareness are definitely growing.

And it's not just the UK - a prolific freelance travel journalist from Germany has visited recently, and Malawi has received coverage as far afield as Brazil!

Maybe at last, Malawi is starting to get the attention it deserves, and "I saw something about Malawi the other day" will become the new regular comment!