Chronicle Editor
This festive season has been great for Zimbabwe and the Tourism sector in particular as the country played host to international celebrities that include Hollywood stars and couple Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Uefa president who is also Fifa vice president Aleksander Ceferin and his wife Barbara and Honorary Commander of the British Navy, Mrs Durdana Ansari.
The other celebrities that have visited the country this year include South African television presenter and socialite Maps Mamponyane. Mamponyane who spent a day in Victoria Falls spoke glowingly about the falls, saying the story of them drying up was not true.
Three months ago, renowned American comedian and television host Steve Harvey and wife Marjorie sneaked into Victoria Falls where they toured the Rainforest.
The Uefa boss who arrived in the country on Friday, has a delegation of 20 people comprising mostly family members including his three daughters Nina (26), Neza (17) and Ana (14).
Dubbed Europe’s most powerful man in football, Ceferin will visit among other places Binga, Hwange National Park, Matopos National Park, Great Zimbabwe and Vumba Mountains.
The tourism sector, we want to believe, appreciates the impact of such high-profile tourists and will therefore not be found wanting. These international celebrities should be our good ambassadors when they return to their respective countries hence the need for the hospitality industry to strive to provide the best services.
We want these celebrities not to just market Zimbabwe as the destination of choice when it comes to tourism but to come back with even bigger delegations in future. Repeat visits are crucial for the tourism industry because it is a confirmation that the visitors enjoyed their stay hence their decision to come back.
The tourism sector, we want to believe, is now enjoying these repeat visits unlike between 2015 and 2016 when 43,2 percent of tourists interviewed during a Visitor Exit survey said they were not coming back to Zimbabwe.
The bold statement from tourists then was that there was something wrong in the way they were handled hence their decision never to come back.
We have no reason to doubt that soon after 2015/16 Exit survey results, the tourism sector and Government immediately worked on identifying the shortcomings in handling tourists and addressed these shortcomings.
One of the shortcomings then was too many police roadblocks which frustrated tourists who viewed them as harassment and this we can confidently say has since been addressed. This is probably why we are now enjoying visits from international celebrities.
We want to implore the tourism sector to maintain or even improve on the present momentum so that the country can derive maximum benefits from its world class tourist attractions such as the Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe Ruins and other such attractions as well as its rich flora and fauna.
Online Reporter