Tourism business benefits should be shared with local communities in order to promote harmonious co-existence and inclusive development.
This emerged during the World Tourism Day symposium held at Lupane State University (LSU) last Thursday, which ran under the theme: "Tourism for Peace".
Tourism and Hospitality Industry Ministry and that of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development coordinated the event where academics presented various papers on how peace can promote tourism.
The prevailing peace in Zimbabwe is regarded as a huge tourism enabler as travellers usually shun conflict-ridden destinations due to security concerns.
However, concerns were raised that communities have not been main-streamed into the tourism economy which is a source of conflict.
Tourism and Hospitality Industry permanent secretary, Dr Takaruza Munyanyiwa, said while tourism is a big business for those in the sector, locals are only provided crumbs, which creates conflict.
He said there was a need for home grown policies that will mainstream communities to benefit from tourism resources that are within their localities.
"I do not think there is a policy framework on how communities can have real benefit.
"We have had the CAMPFIRE, maybe a few other community-based tourism programmes, that have been planned around.
"But it has been left to the discretion of rural district councils to make it a condition for obtaining a concession.
"There is a need for a policy framework that will protect those communities so that they have a real benefit from the resources at their disposal.
"That is a challenge we would like to give the academics to look at so that we can build on that policy foundation," Dr Munyanyiwa said.
Dr Munyanyiwa said existing policies do not serve the interest of the locals.
"The model we are using now is a donor influenced model even on conservation. It is not a home-grown model, we were discussing even in Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) and they are also donor funded.
"We need to come up with home grown models that will definitely benefit our people.
"When we talk about social economic benefit there should be real tangible social economic benefits for the locals because what I see in most communities is extreme poverty of the locals despite the available resources being exploited," said Dr Manyanyiwa.
He said tourism has a capacity to promote inclusive development as opposed to exploiting locals through minimal token handouts yet the same communities suffer more when it comes to human wildlife conflicts.
"We say they are the major stakeholders but what is happening on the ground is that they are not the major stakeholders.
"You are telling the people not to kill the animals, the same animals are plundering their crops, and you tell them tourism brings a lot of money and we go there and employ 20 people.
"That is what we really need to address," Dr Munyanyiwa added.
Tourism and Hospitality Industry Deputy Minister Tongai Mnangagwa said the country needs to maintain its peaceful environment as the sector is highly sensitive to conflicts.
"Tourism is a low hanging fruit with great potential to create jobs for the communities, bringing happiness in families, communities and the nation at large.
"Let me hasten to also say tourism is a very sensitive sector, which shuns away from non-peaceful environments.
"It is in our interests to ensure we remain peaceful as a country for the good of our citizenry and the nation at large," he said.
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Deputy Minister Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe is a peaceful country and challenged tourism players to embrace the same and shun unstable elements or stoking conflicts in the areas of their operation.
Tourism can be a vehicle for social peace, economic peace, cultural peace, environmental peace, community peace for the good of our nation, he added.
"Community peace is possible through community tourism, enterprising and managing human-wildlife conflicts, environmental peace through environmental management awareness, climate change mitigation and adaptation, among others," he added.
The Deputy Minister commended First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa for leading the process of promoting cultural tourism as she has introduced various programmes aimed at preserving culture and heritage such as promoting local cuisines through gastronomy tourism, gota/nhanga as well as promoting the national fabric among others.
