ZimParks in bid to boost domestic tourism

Published: 01 January 2019
THE Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) is considering a downward review of its service charges for locals in an effort to promote domestic tourism in 2019.

Zimparks public relations manager, Mr Tinashe Farawo, said in an interview that domestic tourism presents huge opportunity for growth. He said an estimated 41 percent of tourists were locals and most of them were schoolchildren on educational and recreational tours.

"About 59 percent of tourists are foreigners. We want to change this by boosting domestic tourisms through a number of programmes that we have lined up. We have come up with domestic tourism packages that we are going to unveil in due course," said Mr Farawo.

Most Zimbabweans have not visited tourism attraction sites in the country owing to various reasons such as lack of awareness and in some cases exorbitant service charges.

"We have realised that some prices have been too high for locals and we want to give Zimbabweans first preference at our destinations through a downward review of some of our charges. We want our tourist destinations to be accessible to all Zimbabweans and our popular package is the pay now and stay later, which allows locals to plan well in time," he said.

"We will also make entry to some popular resort areas such as Rain Forest in Victoria Falls free to locals on special days.

"The challenge is that most people think going for a holiday is expensive but its not. The prices on our 'pay now and stay later packages' are very affordable," said Mr Farawo.

Tourism is one of the country's low hanging fruits hence the efforts being directed at expanding the sector which is a big foreign currency earner.

- chronicle
Tags: Zimparks,

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