Build more convention centres: Mzembi

Paidamoyo Chipunza and Ella Mukwati—
Businesses in the tourism sector are working on the construction of convention centres in Harare, Victoria Falls and Hwange to help Zimbabwe bid successfully for international conferences.This is in line with a call by Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi for Zimbabweans to consider building such facilities.

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In an interview after the week long 18th International Conference on Aids and STIs in Africa (ICASA), which ended on Friday in Harare, president of the Zimbabwe Council for Tourism (ZCT) Mr Francis Ngwenya said current facilities do not accommodate many people. He said this resulted in the creation of makeshift conference rooms to accommodate parallel sessions during the Aids conference.

“We are working on having convention centres if authorised in Harare, Victoria Falls and Hwange that will be big enough to host such events and accommodate as many people as possible,” said Mr Ngwenya. During ICASA, tents were pitched around the venue to accommodate break-away sessions, the community village and all exhibitors.

Mobile toilets were also stationed around the conference venue to cater for delegates attending sessions in the community village and parallel sessions from the makeshift conference rooms as the HICC struggled to accommodate all the 4 500 delegates under one roof.

“Looking at the HICC it was built in the 1980s and it suited the needs of that time. Now there is need for modernisation to improve the standards and expansion to accommodate at least more than one big event at any given time,” said Mr Ngwenya.

He said in that regard, they were looking forward to extend the HICC and turn it into a convention centre. Mr Ngwenya said there was also need to invest more in hotels if Zimbabwe was to successfully host international events. “The hotels in Harare were fully booked such that other delegates were taken to universities and registered houses around the city,” said Mr Ngwenya.

“There is a significant benefit and business is at the peak because of this event,” said Mr Ngwenya. Tourism and Hospitality Minister Mzembi echoed ZCT’s sentiments saying Zimbabwe required state-of-the-art conference centres with modern day facilities. He said while the HICC had the required number of breakaway rooms their sizes were small restricting the room set up to match the needs of each session.

“It was evident that this facility is now outdated in view of the prevailing international expectations of conferencing,” said Minister Mzembi. “I would like to applaud the Minister of Health and Child Care for demonstrating to the nation that Zimbabwe has the capacity to host big conferences given the right infrastructure.”

Minister Mzembi said ICASA also provided the basis to fund the brand Zimbabwe project as a matter of urgency. “The Zimbabwe National Convention Bureau needs full government backing to enable it to bid for more conferences into Zimbabwe. The National Convention Bureau has not fully exploited its potential due to financial limitations,” he said.

ICASA was the second largest event hosted by the Zimbabwe after the United Nations World Tourism Organisation held in Victoria Falls.