TOURISM and Hospitality minister Prisca Mupfumira says domestic tourism should constitute between 60% and 70% of the total tourism receipts and the balance being international, driven by aggressive marketing.
BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA
Speaking to NewsDay on the second day of discussions on her ministry’s strategy document in Harare yesterday, Mupfumira said marketing was important for Zimbabwe to be globally recognised.
“Some people do not know what tourism is and we are trying to address that by encouraging tourism. We are saying that tourism should not be about just arrivals, it should be about you spending a night away from home, you visiting the local attractions before we engage or bring people from outside,” she said.
“We should be focusing on our tourism being 60 or 70% domestic and the difference international.”
Mupfumira said digital marketing was one of the areas which needs to be addressed so that the country becomes more visible internationally.
Marketing has been identified as one of the key areas in the ministry’s strategy document to help boost both local and foreign tourism.
Though there are no comprehensive figures, domestic tourism has been a low hanging fruit despite the high pricing and non-marketing to locals.
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Since assuming office last year, Mupfumira has been pushing for affordable rates of tourism products and services, to boost domestic tourism.
This has seen the rollout of a marketing campaign to advertise the sites and attractions to locals.
This is partly why marketing has been included in the National Tourism Sector Strategy plan expected to run till 2030.
Market development and diversification is one of the four areas the ministry will focus on with the others being domestic tourism development, regional and international cooperation and product development and diversification.
“As a ministry, we are already behind schedule in terms of submission of our results-based management critical documents which are the strategic plan, ministry integrated performance agreement and departmental integrated performance agreements to the Office of the President and Cabinet,” Tourism and Hospitality permanent secretary Thokozile Chitepo said.
“These should have been submitted by 31st of May 2018. We, therefore, need to craft smart key result areas, goals and objectives so that we develop our tourism sector to the next level.”
