Published by the government of Zimbabwe
21 August 2008
Harare — ZIMBABWE's annual Travel Expo, now rebranded Sanganai World Travel and Tourism Africa Fair, has all the signs of growing from strength to strength.
The country's premier travel show has outgrown its traditional venue, the Rainbow Towers International Conference Centre, and will for the first time be moved to the second city, Bulawayo, in October.
This should be a welcome development for the growing number of foreign and local exhibitors who had over the years been finding it difficult to secure exhibition space at the traditional venue in Harare.
The Fair provides an annual opportunity for local and foreign organisations to showcase their products and services to a large cross-section of the travel trade and consumers across major markets.
We are told preparations for the Fair are progressing well with 50 foreign and 400 local exhibitors having so far confirmed their participation.
Tourism is among the top export earners for most countries and is an industry that can stimulate jobs and earnings across a multi-sectoral economy such as ours.
And the Sanganai Fair is quite an important event to Zimbabwe, coming at a time when the country is working hard to re-establish its reputation as one of the leading tourism hubs in Africa.
Zimbabwe is endowed with a significant number of world-class tourist attractions such the mighty Victoria Falls, the awesome Great Zimbabwe and a wide selection of wildlife in our national parks.
Our infrastructure is also relatively well developed with a good concentration of hotel rooms and the general attitude of the population to foreign travellers is quite welcoming.
This is buttressed by great support from Government, which has demonstrated high prioritisation of the travel and tourism sector.
While many international travellers find safety and security of serious concern in some tourist destinations in Africa, Zimbabwe is an exception following the establishment of tourism police at key attractions.
We certainly see our tourism on the rebound, thanks to Government's massive tourism marketing programme, which has triggered an increase in tourist arrivals from new sources in the Far East, and the traditional European and North American markets.
This is coming after the country has over the past years suffered a barrage of negative international media reports, but the Government, through the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, embarked on a marketing drive to lure back tourists.
Tourism attaches have been posted to new markets such as China while numerous travel industry and foreign media tours have been arranged to correct the misconception most visitors have had about the country.
The marketing campaigns are paying off as exhibitors from traditional source markets like the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy have disregarded misleading security warnings from their governments not to visit Zimbabwe.
All these positives should spur our tour operators, hotels, restaurants and the national airline, Air Zimbabwe, to work harder to meet the demands of increasing tourist arrivals.
We want Zimbabwe to claim back its position as one of the top destinations of choice for the discerning tourist visiting Africa, a feat we have achieved before in 1999.
We can do it if we work together and make Sanganai World Travel and Tourism Africa Fair a success.
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