Published by the government of Zimbabwe
6 June 2008
Harare — Japan and Zimbabwe are working on reversing tourist travel warnings issued against Zimbabwe in April following a street demonstration by the MDC-T in April.
A Zimbabwean delegation, comprising Zimbabwean Ambassador to Japan Mr Stuart Comberbach, Deputy Secretary of Environment and Tourism Mrs Enivah Mutsau and Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke, met with Japanese Foreign Office officials in Tokyo yesterday and agreed on a plan of action.
Zimbabwe expressed concern to the Japanese authorities over raising of Zimbabwe's risk level from level 1 to level 2, arguing that the situation on the ground did not reflect that the country was more risk to warrant the latest classification.
Director-General of Consular Affairs Bureau in the Japanese Nationals Overseas Safety Division Mr Jasuaki Taniziki had cited the political demonstration by MDC-T and the response of the police on April 11, 2008 in Harare Gardens near the offices of the Japanese Embassy as among other reasons for level 2 classification. Japan raised Zimbabwe's risk level from level 1 to level 2 on April 24 this year, a level that requires all tour operators, travel agents and individual travellers to cancel their travel arrangements to such destinations. Commenting on the meeting yesterday, Mr Kaseke said that the delegation made it clear that it was unfair to label the whole country as risky for Japanese travellers.
"My main purpose of coming to Japan was to address this issue of our risk level as a tourism destination. We felt the review by the Japanese Government on April 24, which raised our country risk from level 1 to level 2, was somehow incorrect and a little bit harsh. "During the month of April and May we experienced very disturbing group cancellations by tour operators from Japan who had planned tours not only to Zimbabwe but Southern Africa as a whole.
"As we are talking now, a number of operators and travel agents here have already reintroduced their group tours to Victoria Falls. Not all of them, of course, but most of them are optimistic following our meetings with officials from the Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the many operators in the private outbound tour sector in Japan.
"The current unfortunate risk level of Zimbabwe would be reviewed if we follow the programme we have agreed upon," said Mr Kaseke. He said cancellations were not affecting Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls only but the whole of Southern Africa too as most group tours were to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, Cape Town in South Africa and Chobe in Botswana. Tourism operator Mr Kazuo Yoshinari of the Leader Retail Sales Division of NOE Tours in Japan said following the travel warnings, packages to Southern Africa without Victoria Falls were not selling.
"Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe is a mandatory inclusion in any package, hence we had cancelled all our tours to Southern Africa because for most of our clients 'No Victoria Falls, No Southern Africa'," he said. Mr Kaseke said owing to the cancellations, Zimbabwe had lost about 4 000 tourists who had planned to visit Victoria Falls between April 15 and May 31, 2008. This translates to about 12 000 bed nights as the average stay per visitor is three nights or US$7 million in receipts. "This is a sad situation indeed, but as the tourism promotion organ of Government we will do everything in our power to redress the situation. We need those jobs, we need that foreign currency and we need to alleviate the poverty that is affecting some of our people.
"To lose a market as important as Japan just because of a purposeless demonstration by a political party is unfortunate for the nation, to say the very least," said Mr Kaseke. ZTA has met with a number of Japanese tour operators including the Japanese Association of Travel Agents, the Japanese Travel Bureau (JTB) and about 30 other operators and agents.
, chief among them Nippon Travel Agents, Club Tourism, Highest International Standards, United Touring Company, Global, NOE, JTB Grant Tours and World Air Service and has managed to convince them that Zimbabwe still remains one of the safest tourism destinations in Africa.
Most of these operators, with the exception of JTB, which is ironically the biggest tour operator in Japan, have re-introduced their group tours to Victoria Falls with effect from this week.
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To whoever posted the comment above, i just want you to know that its not about "race". Its so sad whe some mis-informed people like you are getting space on the net to just post your stupid and unreasonable comments. When you talk of "race" you are already becoming racist. Japanese are not a "stupid race" like which race? the race of the people of zanu pf? If you think that zanu pf is a party for Black people be informed that there are blacks and WHITES also in that zanu pf party.
Sorry blackrace if my mention of Japanese as a race offended you . I dont recall saying Zanu-pf were a race either , I might have mentioned Zanu thugs and their distablisig antics. Whom were not mentioned as to what may have contributed to the travel ban.The reference to misinformed belongs to the Herald (the great misinformer) And racist I hope that you are not ferring that was the motivation for my comment
Japan is a peaceful nation . If Zimbabwe wants their tourist dollars Zanu thugs need to be reigned in. Japanese are not a stupid race.