ZTA seeks to ramp up regional market share

THE Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) wants to increase arrivals from southern Africa, especially South Africa, by at least 20% this year, according to chief executive officer (CEO) Winnie Muchanyuka.

“We have seen a significant improvement from last year’s tourism sector performance, and we’ve received substantial amounts of business from the South African market. In view of this, we’re paying particular attention to that market,” she said on Sunday ahead of the Africa’s Travel Indaba (ATI) tourism trade showcase being held in South Africa.

Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry minister Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndhlovu is leading the country’s tourism industry at the tourism trade showcase which kicked off in Durban yesterday and will run until Thursday.

“Our aim is to increase inflows from the region and particularly this market by at least 20% (South Africa contributed 292 000 visitors into Zimbabwe last year). We are going to South Africa to consolidate and grow our regional market share. In the same vein, we’re honoured to have the minister leading the delegation this year,” the CEO said in a statement.

“The level of participation of the tourism players from Zimbabwe is quite impressive, and as ZTA, we’re grateful to the industry for supporting our strategic goal in promoting the destination. I am confident that Zimbabwe will make a lasting impression at this year’s show,” she added.

“We are delighted that ‘smaller’ players are now also seeing that marketing their products at these big travel shows has immense benefits to their businesses and can impact heavily on their growth trajectory.”

Zimbabwe is in Durban after a successful outing by ZTA in the Middle East as the country hopes to further position itself as a key tourist destination in the southern African region.

The Durban exhibition is set to showcase a wide variety of top drawer tourism products and destinations to attract international buyers and media from across the globe.

The exhibition is one of the largest tourism marketing events on the African calendar and is among the top-tier tourism events on the global calendar.

This year’s edition will see Zimbabwe leading a strong contingent of more than 30 tourism operators, an increase from 24 which took part last year.

Zimbabwe helicopter tour operator MJ Air director, Gerald Zumbika, said he was looking forward to his company benefiting from exhibiting at the tourism expo.

“As MJ Air, we’re delighted and excited to be exhibiting with the ZTA at this year’s edition of ATI. We’re looking forward to creating meaningful and fruitful business connections in our quest to strengthen business generated from this market,” he said.

“We’re happy that the minister and his team at ZTA are leading from the front as they continue to facilitate participation for the destination at such huge platforms.”

South Africa is the largest tourist source market for Zimbabwe, contributing 30% of total arrivals in 2022.

Africa’s Travel Indaba is an iconic African leisure trade show run by South African Tourism, with the specific objective of creating market access for a vast array of African leisure tourism products.

Zimbabwe is also looking forward to engaging fellow African exhibitors and learn from their best practices and innovations.-newsday