David Chapman’s legacy will live yonder

Stan Higgins
One of Zimbabwe’s longest-serving travel and tourism personalities, David Chapman, has died in Harare.

Born and educated in the United Kingdom, he came to Zimbabwe in the mid-1950s to work in agriculture, but he soon moved into the aviation industry, first with Central African Airways and later as the country representative of the British Overseas Airways Corporation, forerunner of British Airways.

He was later appointed general manager of Manica Travel, a leading travel agency and tour operator, and also became heavily involved in travel and tourism issues, including serving on the committees of the Association of Zimbabwean Travel Agents and the Board of Airline Representatives. In 1988 he was part of a group of tourism leaders who created the Zimbabwe Council for Tourism, now the Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe.

He retired from Manica Travel and became the first chairman and, later, chief executive of the ZCT, serving until the late 1990s. He remained involved in travel and tourism issues for several years, consulting for the Board of Airline Representatives and the World Travel and Tourism Council.
He retired from active work in the mid-2000s and enjoyed a retirement with his wife, Jass, until her passing in 2013.

Chapman was a visionary with an exceptional understanding of the needs of Zimbabwe’s travel and tourism sector and he worked tirelessly for the benefit of the whole sector.

While at Manica Travel he masterminded the first Travel Expo, held at Meikles Hotel and later to become Zimbabwe’s showpiece annual tourism fair.

At the helm of the ZCT, he launched a range of initiatives and created a body that brought together the majority of operators in the sector, directly or through their respective sectoral associations, which he had encouraged to come under the ZCT umbrella when it was formed. He also helped to create the Joint Marketing Committee, which was an operation of the ZCT and the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, and was active in a range of promotional activities, among them the hosting in Zimbabwe of large numbers of travel writers and broadcasters, as well as travel trade executives.

He was a ZTA and ZCT Tourism Personality of the Year on a number of occasions, and in 2015 was given a Lifetime Achievement Award in the newly-inaugurated Tourism Achievers Awards organised by the ZCT. In being given this award, he was described as ‘one of the most important drivers of local and international travel and tourism in the history of Zimbabwe.’    He is survived by two daughters, and their children.

Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe president Winnie Muchanyuka and Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief executive Mr  Givemore Chidzidzi have paid warm tribute to Chapman,  especially for his significant contribution to the growth and development of Zimbabwean travel and tourism.