adminIn an interview last week on the sidelines of a two-day women in tourism training workshop in Masvingo, Ms Mutsvayi said there was a need to come up with policies that were women friendly in order to promote their participation in business especially in tourism.
The training workshop was run under the banner, “Engendering the tourism process in Zimbabwe”.
The workshop was co-ordinated by Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA) in conjunction with the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Ministry of Small to Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development.
About 50 participants, mostly rural women in tourism, attended the workshop.
“Those entrusted to craft policies should factor in the issue of gender equity and equality so that women can get a fair share of access. They also should be able to access all resources that their male counterparts are getting,” said Ms Mutsvayi.
She said women had been disadvantaged for a long time and their roles in tourism business were still considered peripheral.
“After we carried a study it was realised that women’s positions in tourism were of peripheral nature. Most women here (Masvingo) are into art and craft and not into mainline tourism. This is a pilot programme where we endeavour to equip women in tourism with relevant information and skills so that we motivate them to take active roles, like in other business spheres.
“The majority of people who own hotels or lodges, for example, are men with an insignificant number of females. They are only found in beauty contests like Miss Zimbabwe, Miss Tourism,” she said
Ms Mutsvayi has also underscored the need for women to get their businesses registered so as to access critical services they may need to advance their business initiatives.
“We encourage women in tourism to get registered so that they can be able to access resources, both material and financial. Once they have registered it is also easy to access markets because they will be known. From this workshop the groups will be given forms of registration.”
She said ZWLA would facilitate the registering of women in business groups so that they can be recognised.
“Their business should be legal entities and we are there to ensure that all those that we have trained have attained that status in a few days to come,” she said.
Online Reporter