Zim targets 2.8m tourist arrivals

Zim targets 2.8m tourist arrivals
Published: 21 February 2018
ZIMBABWE has set a target of at least 2, 8 million foreign tourist arrivals by December compared to about 2, 4 million in 2017.

Speaking during a provincial tourism stakeholders meeting held at the local hotel in Masvingo on Monday, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive, Mr Karikoga Kaseke, said the country has the potential of attracting more foreign tourists had it not been for some questionable approaches used in the past.

He said the new political dispensation under President Emmerson Mnangagwa has brought renewed vigour through enhanced ease of doing business, which will benefit the tourism sector especially.

"We have a great potential of taking our tourism to dizzy heights if we implement the rightful approaches. Had it not been for the top down approach used by the previous Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, we could have achieved beyond a $5 billion economy by now," he said.

Mr Kaseke said the former minister, Engineer Walter Mzembi, would come up with policies at the ministerial level without consulting stakeholders resulting in implementation failure of ministry programmes. He said the new dispensation was keen on active involvement of stakeholders on the ground in policy formulation for easy buy-in.

ZTA chief operating officer, Mr Givemore Chidzidzi, said Zimbabwe's tourism potential was huge if competitiveness measures are put in place.

"According to the tourism marketing strategy that we have, we should attract at least seven million tourists by 2025. We should create about 40 000 websites on tourism, increase our social media penetration by 30 percent to at least one million users," said Mr Chidzidzi.

He said Zimbabwe was the destination of choice for most foreign tourists but due to skewed policies in the previous dispensation, the country experienced a fall in foreign tourist arrivals.

Mr Chidzidzi said in 2016 the country accounted for at least one million tourists from South Africa but towards the end of the year the figure had dropped to 700 000.

"We were unable to increase the figures or maintain them due to the wrong approach used by then. This was also caused by our poor competitiveness on the business, health and human resource front. Our business index stood at 134 out of 136 countries, position 60 on safety and security, 128 on health and hygiene, 127 on human resources, 105 on prioritisation strategy and we were on position 82 on international openness," said Mr Chidzidzi.

He said tourism remained a low-hanging fruit and as part of massive marketing strategies, information and publicity offices in the provinces should be strengthened. The meeting convened by the ZTA was attended by the chief executive officers from all seven rural district councils, Masvingo City Council acting chamber secretary, Mr Vitalis Shonhayi, ZTA provincial board chairman Dr Fredrick Kasese, Great Zimbabwe Hotel general manager, Ms Mildred Zulu, among other dignitaries.


- chronicle
Tags: Tourists,

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