The tourism industry remains the fastest growing sector in the economy with an 83 percent increase in arrivals in the first half of this year.
The increase is likely to see a 12 percent jump in accommodation and food this year following the 26,4 percent jump last year, the 2024 Mid-term Budget and Economic Review presented last week showed.
Addressing delegates at the United Nations Tourism first Regional Forum on Gastronomy for Africa in Victoria Falls last Friday, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Barbara Rwodzi, who was hosting the event on behalf of the Government, said the tourism strategy was being driven by President Mnangagwa's vision for Zimbabwe to attain an upper middle income economy by 2030 or earlier.
"The objective in the Second Republic is to grow the tourism and hospitality industry beyond the US$5 billion mark."
Growth of the tourism industry is accelerating next year, leveraging on massive infrastructure developments especially in Victoria Falls where new hotels and lodges have been built.
Minister Rwodzi said the significant growth being experienced in the tourism and hospitality industry in Zimbabwe was a result of the Ministry's new industry strategy that was placing a deliberate and increased focus on the country's heritage.
This emphasis on people and culture, fauna, flora, geology, landscapes and the resultant food culture was the key determinant for the country's comparative advantage.
Minister Rwodzi said, expressed in different terms, the strategic doctrine for growing the tourism and hospitality industry in Zimbabwe was heritage-based.
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"This is an intuitive doctrine as the pull factor in the tourism and hospitality industry is the uniqueness of peoples and cultures, fauna, flora, crops, geology such as Victoria Falls - a geological wonder, landscapes and all these positively connive and get expressed in the food we eat and enjoy which is gastronomy tourism.
"The implementation pillars of our Heritage-based tourism strategy are defined in our innovative tourism and hospitality industry cluster framework. This framework is our unique innovation in the tourism and hospitality industry development and promotion programmes.
"One such pillar is the culture and heritage cluster under which gastronomy tourism is being developed and deployed as a new, innovative and robust growth factor in our industry.
"In our implementation of gastronomy tourism in Zimbabwe, thus far, communities are realising tangible benefits while being drivers within the value chain," said Minister Rwodzi.
