US$5bn tourism economy under spotlight

ACHIEVING the US$5 billion tourism economy by 2025 is under focus as the country gears to host this year’s Sanganai/Hlanganani Global Tourism Expo in Bulawayo between 13-15 October.

The tourism sector is on a rebound locally and globally, recovering from crippling Covid-19-induced lockdown measures experienced in the last two years.

With relaxation of travel restrictions amid vaccination milestones that have enabled the country to successfully contain new infections, Zimbabwe has started attracting global tourists again.

This has also been enhanced by the launching of new flights that connect the country’s major destinations with domestic, regional and international source markets.

Dr Nicholas Ndebele

The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) is working closely with the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) Company, which owns the venue for the forthcoming prime tourism expo, to ensure this year’s event builds momentum towards achieving the US$5 billion tourism milestone.

ZITF chief executive officer, Dr Nicholas Ndebele, said the two organisations have joined hands in promoting tourism growth and brand Zimbabwe at large.

“We regard this partnership to be very important to co-create this platform called Sanganai/Hlanganani where participants in the tourism sector will come to meet, network and engage,” he said.

“We can demonstrate that not only is domestic tourism growing, we also want to promote regional tourism and believe that with the receding Covid-19 we will have more and more international tourism coming,” said Dr Ndebele.

“The tourism sector obviously has a target and a vision of a US$5 billion industry and we think that Sanganai/ Hlanganani is also important in contributing towards that US$5 billion milestone.

“We all know the impact that Covid-19 has had in the tourism sector in general and the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) industry at large. So, we are quite excited that once more we are hosting tourism players in Bulawayo at the home of exhibition at the Zimbabwe International Exhibition Centre.”

To ensure smooth travel services going forward, the ZTA has engaged the Immigration Department as part of its efforts to promote accessible tourism through friendly and quality services at the country’s ports of entry.

ZTA chief executive, Ms Winnie Muchanyuka, recently engaged chief immigration director, Ms Respect Gono, as part of efforts aimed at promoting accessible tourism for all.

The Immigration Department is the starting and finishing point of international tourism as all visitors pass through it first when they come into the country and pass-through immigration last when they leave the country.

Ms Winnie Muchanyuka

The critical stopover at the Immigration Department ties into ZTA’s ongoing whirlwind collaborative process of engaging tourism stakeholders, agencies, tour-operators and end-users to improve service delivery and refine the tourism product.

Speaking after the meeting, Ms Muchanyuka said it was vital that ZTA and the Immigration Department work in unison to enable Zimbabwe to compete favourably against its competitors.

“A successful tourism product requires effective partnerships and co-operation across many sectors at the national, regional and international levels,” she said.

“For us to refine our tourism product we need to move in unison with critical stakeholders and the Immigration Department is one such stakeholder.

“Among a wide range of issues that we deliberated on was the matter of accelerating our service excellence training programmes for staff at ports of entry focusing on Beitbridge Border Post, Victoria Falls International Airport, Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport and Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Airport.”

Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International airport. Image taken from CITE

The Immigration Department welcomed the meeting, which came as the tourism sector is seeking to rediscover its buoyant trend whose generated revenues play a pivotal role in the overall development of the economy.

“We are happy to be collaborating with ZTA to ensure we deliver the best service,” Ms Gono said.

“Beitbridge Border Post is now a world-class post and we want to replicate that across the country but we can’t do it alone. It starts with such engagements.

“I am very excited to be putting this in motion with the people responsible with the branding of the country.”

Meanwhile, ZTA has urged locals to support domestic tourism through making savings for holiday travel including exploring group travel options, which cut costs.

Mr Godfrey Koti

ZTA head corporate affairs, Mr Godfrey Koti, said some travellers have initiated what is known as the “Stokvel/ Mukando Scheme”, which encourages travellers to pool their funds together and pay for travel packages at favourable rates.

“The concept is just to encourage group travel and allow people to save as things are expensive but if they pool funds together life becomes easier,” said Mr Koti.

“We are just encouraging everyone to support this initiative for them to be able to enjoy the tourism products and by then also supporting the #Zimbo Campaign that is underway.”—chronicle.do.zw