The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and African Sun will attend a nine-day road show in the United States of America from September 4 to 13 2012, across Orange County, Boston, Atlanta, Denver and Greenwich. The road shows are being co-ordinated by South African Airways in collaboration with On Show Solutions to allow the African tourism industry to maximise business in the US by opening new introductions in these cities.

Speaking on the US expedition, ZTA chief executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke said the road shows are a means to regain market share in the US.

"Previously, the US has been one of Zimbabwe's key markets with tourist traffic yielding close to 120 000 in 1996. This figure slumped during the last decade due to the economic meltdown to about 28 000 in 2011," he said.

Mr Kaseke also added that the country has been fighting a propaganda war against some sections of the media particularly the US and Britain and the road shows are a platform to interface with the international media and re-engage them so that they write positively about Zimbabwe.

These road shows come as a follow-up to a previous visit by the authority last month where Zimbabwe was officially incorporated into the Destination Marketing Association International, a move meant to re-establish presence in the American market.

This is indicative of the tourism industry making strides in promoting the destination thereby contributing to the economy of the country.

The cities on this year's road show have been strategically selected to provide good cross-section coverage of the market in key source areas, while also targeting a range of tourism corporate, incentive and retail agents and operators.

In each city, appropriate locations have been selected in terms of accessibility for the buyers, attraction of the venue, and affluence/spending power of the area.

Zimbabwe will also market its tourism brand "Zimbabwe - A World of Wonders", which has been well received in various countries such as the UK, Germany, South Africa, China and many others.