Published by the government of Zimbabwe
4 April 2006
Harare — NINE Chinese journalists are in Zimbabwe for a six-day familiarisation tour of the country's premier resort areas.
The Chinese delegation, comprising photographers, news anchors, news directors and reporters from various print and electronic media houses, will tour the country's famous historical monuments such as Great Zimbabwe, Matopo Hills, Lake Kariba and major cities like Harare, Bulawayo and Gweru. An official from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) said the major objective of the visit was to expose the Asian media to Zimbabwe's resort centres. "This is to equip them with knowledge so that when they report about the country, they do so from an informed point of view," the official said. As part of the same initiative, another delegation of media practitioners, this time from France, is expected in the country in the next two weeks. ZTA would also carry out marketing programmes through participation at the Arabian Travel Mart, Kuwait Travel Mart, ITE Hong Kong and CITM in China.
Zimbabwe has over the past few years been subjected to bad publicity mostly as a result of its land ref orm programme. This has impacted negatively on the country's tourism sector. Recently, the tourism sector recorded a 49 percent decline in its earnings from US$198 million in 2005 to US$98 million this year. There was also an 11 percent decline in the tourist arrivals from within the continent and a 39 percent decline of tourist arrivals from overseas.
ZTA chairman Mr Emmanuel Fundira attributed the decline to negative publicity that the country has been facing from the Western Press over the past years. The visit by the Chinese journalists comes after a seven-member group of Malaysian media practitioners toured the country last month on a similar familiarisation tour.
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