Published by the government of Zimbabwe
28 November 2007
Harare — The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority plans to target the Japanese tourist market to boost arrivals from the Far East, ZTA marketing and public relations director Mr Givemore Chidzidzi has said.
In an interview in Victoria Falls last week, he said Japan tour operators were focusing on promoting visits to Africa next year and Zimbabwe wanted to take advantage of this to increase its share of tourists from that country.
Mr Chidzidzi was in the resort town with 10 members of Japanese Association of Travel Agents who were in the country for a one-day visit to assess facilities in Victoria Falls, the region's premier tourist resort. Mr Chidzidzi said the number of tourist arrivals from Japan had increased over the past two years. Last year, there were 12 124 arrivals compared to 10 481 in 2005. "These travel agents are going to be creating packages for Southern Africa. This is a snippet visit to see what Zimbabwe is capable of offering," he said.
The travel agents were taken on helicopter rides and a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River. They were also taken for a tour of hotel facilities in the town. Mr Chidzidzi said the agents were all senior officials in their respective organisations. He said the Japanese tourist market was a high-spending one and the tourists travelled a lot. "They are in the top five travellers and spenders," he said. The Victoria Falls are the main reason why Japanese and other tourists from the Far East visit Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe should take advantage of that to market the country, the head of the JATA delegation, Mr Toru Furusawu, said.
He said there were about 17 million Japanese tourists who travelled abroad annually. "Zimbabwe is a beautiful country with beautiful people and stands to benefit from the huge Japanese travel and tour market if it is properly marketed," he said. "Victoria Falls is a preferred destination among the Japanese and for them to come to Southern Africa, we include the mighty Victoria Falls on the package because no Victoria Falls, no trip to Southern Africa for them.
"After the falls, then they can go to Cape Town in South Africa and other destinations." Mr Furusawu said Zimbabwe should take advantage of the 2010 soccer World Cup extravaganza in South Africa to market its tourist resorts aggressively especially the Victoria Falls.
He said his country had deliberately focused interests in Africa generally and Southern Africa in particular. Already regional airlines have started working with JATA to promote the region as a safe destination. Mr Onoda Yutuka, a representative of South African Airways in Japan, said airlines in his country that fly into Southern Africa have been forced to include Victoria Falls as one of their key destinations as it was popular with Japanese travellers.
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