Designer clinches $250 000 orders at UNWTO assembly

Business Reporter
A Harare-based designer of African and ethnic clothing attire clinched orders worth $250 000 during the United Nations World Tourism Organisation general assembly in Victoria Falls last week.While other small scale entrepreneurs who exhibited at a special exhibition organised by the Ministry of Small to Medium and Co-operative Development in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority during the general assembly complained that business was low, Ms Rosemary Vambe, director of Ashava Designs, said delegates to the general assembly had shown much interest in her goods.
She said she made cash sales of more than $5 000.

“I got orders worth $250 000. Delegates from Tanzania, Algeria and England were interested in my goods,” she said.
Ms Vambe said a potential buyer from England indicated they wanted to buy her goods for an African themed gallery they were going to open.

She, however, conceded the sales she made during the six-day event were low considering that she brought stocks valued at $85 000.
Ms Vambe said she fared better than other SMEs who failed to make a single sale because of the way she presented herself and her goods.

She said her ethnic dressing attracted interest from delegates who saw her in the hotel lobby and wanted to find out where she got it.
“When they see me looking like this, they ask where I get my goods,” she said.

Ms Vambe said unlike most people who exhibited, she designed and made her own goods while others just ordered for resale.
Most goods on display were also similar yet delegates wanted something unique, she said.

“What these people are doing is copying others’ products. They don’t even know what they are made of if they are asked by buyers. They lie that they make these products,” she said.

Most SMEs said they had failed to make a single sale during the week-long event.

Due to poor business generated by SMEs during the general assembly, Government announced that it was availing $115 000 to buy some of the goods on exhibition to give to delegates as gifts.