Participation in MATTA Fair pays dividends for Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe’s inaugural participation at the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel
Agents (MATTA) Fair in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is fast yielding dividends with global
operators already including the country in their packages, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority
(ZTA) has said.
The MATTA Fair was held from 17 to 19 this month and attracted over 460 exhibitors and
proved to be the leading “Consumers Travel Fair” in Malaysia.
About 100 000 visitors from Malaysia, ASEAN, and the rest of the world attended the fair.
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority
In a statement, the tourism promotional body said Executive Director for International
Marketing, Mr Jeffreys Manjengwa, said Destination Zimbabwe attracted huge interest
during the fair.
He said 30 agencies expressed interest in collaborating with the ZTA to come on a
destination familiarisation tour later this year during Sanganai-Hlanganani World
Tourism Expo.
“The greatest takeaway from this engagement is that awareness of destination
Zimbabwe raised a lot of interest such that operators have already begun including
Zimbabwe in their packages,” he noted.
“It was such a great show for us as the ZTA. We’re looking at harnessing the traffic flow
of tourists from this part of the world into the destination. This is in an effort to meet the
country’s tourist arrivals targets. Zimbabwe and Uganda were the only two African
countries that participated,” said Manjengwa.
He said Zimbabwe’s participation raised a lot of enthusiasm for the Malaysian market
and the country is targeting emerging markets such as Singapore and various South East
Asian countries.
For instance, he said the market became aware of the existence of Africa as a continent
and Zimbabwe as a major destination in Southern Africa.
“Interestingly, the indication is that around 90 percent of the traffic who came to the
show were not well-aware of the destination or physical location of Zimbabwe, however,
interestingly the market is aware of our major icon, Victoria Falls,” he said.
MATTA Fair KL is an annual travel fair that is organised by the Malaysian Association of
Tour and Travel Agents.
It is the biggest travel fair in the country and is attended by a wide range of visitors.
The fair aims to promote the tourism industry in Malaysia and connect travellers with
tour operators, hotels, airlines, and other service providers.
Zimbabwe’s tourism sector is on the rebound following a dip due to Covid-19 global
pandemic.
Under the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy, the Government expects to
increase tourism earnings to US$5 billion by 2025.
Tourism is one of the key economic pillars and the sector is expected to contribute more
towards economic growth in line with the upper middle-income economy vision by 2030.-The Chronicle
