GOVERNMENT will this week hold a ministerial roundtable to discuss ways to increase Africa’s global tourism participation, which accounts for 5% of the $1,3 trillion annual receipts.
BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA
The meeting will be held on Thursday as part of the annual Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo. Sanganai/Hlanganani runs from June 18 to 20 at the Harare International Conference Centre.
Speaking at a Press briefing on Friday, Tourism and Hospitality Industry minister Walter Mzembi said the ministerial roundtable would include ministers from regional countries and would be chaired by South African Tourism minister Derek Hanekom.
“We have the introduction of the ministerial roundtable, which is again another requirement by United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) to pitch our international and travel expos on a policy level where industry and other stakeholders can interrogate us on policy as ministers,” Mzembi said.
“We desire at this roundtable session to interrogate those factors that are stunting the growth of market share in Africa.”
The theme for the roundtable meeting is “Tourism: Africa’s Sleeping Giant Towards Double Digit Market Share by Year 2020”.
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Mzembi said he had put together four thematic areas for discussion at the roundtable such as travel facilitation that would capture destination accessibility and connectivity in terms of how Africa is accessed internationally.
“The holding of international and tourism expos by a host country is a requirement under the UNWTO and it is at these expos that buyers and sellers meet, interact and transact business,” Mzembi said.
He said one of the areas to be discussed was how to put city tourism back on the map by including vending sites as part of the tourist package.
“We would like to bring back vending as part of our package, but it must be dignified in conditions and environments that promote sanitation and it is super critical that we become players in rebranding our city tourism to make our city streets aesthetically attractive,” Mzembi said.
“We have instructed the ZTA (Zimbabwe Tourism Authority) to get involved immediately with small and medium enterprises and assist in the branding of vending going forward in the instituted places being announced.”
He said another area to be discussed would be Brand Africa through creating proper awareness in terms of infirmities facing Africa such as the deadly disease, Ebola.
“We suffered a setback with Ebola through the world’s inability to locate the disease as to where it was being derived from and our ability to restrict it in the mindset of the international consuming travelling public,” Mzembi said.
