Harare — THE Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) will unveil a new marketing package to entice tourists into the country ahead of the World Cup soccer ournament to be held in South Africa in 2010, an official said.

ZTA marketing and communications director Mr Givemore Chidzidzi told New Ziana that the global sporting showcase was a golden chance for the tourism sector in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc).

"Obviously in terms of hosting the World Cup, we will market our wildlife, parks and natural wonders. Internationally, tourism packages have been viewed not per each country but per region," he said.

"Right now the attention is on the World Cup in Germany and the whole of Europe, when that is over, it automatically shifts to the Sadc region. We will be launching an aggressive marketing drive for our resort areas."

Historically, he said, most of the qualifying teams to the global tournament came from nowhere near Sadc, with the majority coming from Europe, Asia and South America.

Football history, Mr Chidzidzi said, had shown that fans follow their favourite teams everywhere and the majority of them would want to maximise their chances of seeing the entire sub-region.

South Africa, just like Germany, would be unlikely to single-handedly accommodate all the visitors and talks were already underway to capture the excess number of international visitors, he said.

"Since we have gathered that some of the matches will be held in Polokwane (formerly Petersburg), which is geographically close to Zimbabwe, we are arranging that some of the participants be booked either in Bulawayo or anywhere from where they can fly back and forth saving time and money than to fly, say from Cape Town," he said.

The region would take advantage of the international focus to market its tourism treasures, he said.

In Zimbabwe, tourism is the third largest foreign currency earner after agriculture and mining.