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Golden Sibanda
Zimbabwe may never be the same post its participation at Expo 2025 Osaka, Japan, where it will join more than 150 other countries for the six-month long global exhibition expected to attract over 28 million visitors from across the world, permanent secretary for Tourism and Hospitality Industry Dr Takaruza Munyanyiwa has said.
The southern African nation will market the numerous tourism, trade and investment opportunities in the country over the duration of the expo, which starts on April 13, 2025, and runs until October 13, 2025.
This aligns with the Government’s economic diplomacy, engagement and re-engagement as well as private sector and export-led growth policy thrust.
Zimbabwe is targeting to attract at least 3 million visitors to its strategically located pavilion at the world trade and investment showpiece.
It will exhibit under the theme “Beyond Limits” and its pavilion will embrace diversity, innovation and resilience, with the main thrust being how the country is surmounting various impediments through the employment of innovations.
Dr Munyanyiwa said outcomes from the global expo would inform and shape the Government’s future policy decisions and action plans while the exhibition should help grow and transform the country’s tourism and hospitality sector.
“So, definitely it will shape our plans (and policies) the next time when we are doing our planning because any plan must be organic, must change, it must align to the environment and after this kind of event, Zimbabwe will no longer be the same,” he said.
Tourism is one of Zimbabwe’s key economic sectors along with agriculture, mining and manufacturing.
The country has already achieved its target of a US$5 billion tourism industry by 2025 and discussions are underway for new benchmarks.
Zimbabwe’s tourism, which the Government says has recovered to pre-Covid-19 era levels, which caused countries across the globe into lockdowns to contain the spread of the viral disease, thereby impacting travel and tourism, is expected to attract more than 2 million visitors and raking in US$1,3 billion in receipts this year.
The recovery has benefited from fresh investments key in infrastructure including the country’s road network, the Robert Mugabe International and Victoria Falls International airports, which together with the various efforts by the Government, among them, the open skies policy, lured back international airlines.
Foreign airline numbers have grown to 21, including British Airways, South African Airways, ComAir, Lufthansa, Emirates, Ethiopian and Qatar Airways among others, after plunging to only a handful after the turn of the century.
Dr Munyanyiwa, in an interview with Star FM’s State of Affairs programme team, said Expo 2025 Osaka presented a unique opportunity to showcase Zimbabwe’s endowments, trade and investment opportunities, culture and heritage to the rest of the world.
“Millions of people patronise this event and a lot of countries are exhibiting.
“So, it is a one-stop shop for promoting your destination.
“A lot of business transactions do happen (at this event) and this is where you establish your networks and when you get back home and start following up on those leads.
“You (would) have promoted yourself, you (would) have benchmarked, you know what is happening in the world.
“For tourism, we have got a lot of attractions that we also want to showcase; our world heritage sites like Victoria Falls, Great Zimbabwe, the Eastern Highlands, Matopos; wildlife experience, natural scenery; a diversity of our attractions in all the 10 provinces.
“There is a lot of stuff that we need to be talking about, experiences of Zimbabwe’s rich traditions and different cultures, our gastronomy,” he said.
Dr Munyanyiwa said Zimbabwe had a lot to offer, including its unique cuisines.
“You are aware that Zimbabwe has done well in gastronomy through the efforts of the First Lady, Dr Auxilia Mnangagwa, who is spearheading that,” he said.
Dr Munyanyiwa said Dr Mnangagwa’s efforts culminated in the country being awarded the right to host the first-ever Africa Gastronomy Forum.
“Food is an important part of tourism,” he said.
“So, in terms of tourism, we see immediate and future impacts because once you participate at this forum, you have seeded for future development.
“There are a lot of countries in the world that we are unable to visit, but this platform brings countries under one roof and you are benchmarking yourself and you are promoting yourself.
“We need therefore to be there for six months and promote our destination.”
He added the country will also market the unlimited investment potential in infrastructure development.
“Zimbabwe is under-invested in accommodation. We need more capacity, and we need more investment in accommodation because once there is demand, then we are saying other supporting infrastructure create investment opportunities; road networks for accessibility; we need investment in that and we have to work on that,” he said.
He said from a cluster-based tourism approach, the Government continued to identify where there was this need, including through exploring opportunities in Community-Based Tourism.
“So, there is a huge opportunity in terms of infrastructure and product development,” Dr Munyanyiwa said. “The objective is to showcase Zimbabwe and tourism is just one aspect within that window that we have.”
Zimbabwe will also use the global exhibition to showcase its cultural heritage.
Dr Munyanyiwa said from a culture-based tourism approach, people across the world were differentiated by their own culture.
As such, Zimbabwe would have visuals, cultural groups and diverse cuisines as part of its promotional package during Expo 2025 Osaka.
The country would have ample opportunity to focus on culture and heritage during its own National Day, allocated to every country to celebrate its culture, people and endowments.
“We are going to have a National Day, every country is allocated a National Day, to celebrate your country and we are going to use that platform to promote our fabric, to promote our cuisines, to promote our dance and music and all the heritage that we have,” Dr Munyanyiwa said.
This is expected to boot visitors to Zimbabwe from across the world, including Japan, which is already a key tourist source market for the country.
Dr Munyanyiwa noted that increasing tourists traffic was critical given that investors, often, start with ordinary visits, which may culminate in investments.
“So, we want to make sure that we are selling our destination, both to the local population and of course to the international population.”
He said the country would utilise some of the experience gained from its participation at Expo 2020 Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to better prepare and maximise the opportunities presented by Expo 2025 Osaka.
“We have seen a scaling up because every expo we have to learn, we have seen scaling up of our presence; what can we do there; the design of our pavilion; the different offers that we take there and what information we want to send,” he said.
Expo 2025 Osaka commissioner General, who is also trade promotion body ZimTrade chief executive Mr Allan Majuru is on record saying the country had noted down its targeted outcomes and the associated numbers, regarding what it seeks to bring back from the global expo after the six months event has ended.
Japan Embassy Charge d’Affaires, Mr Hiroyuki Kumagai, also said late last year that his country was working tirelessly to deliver a successful expo, adding the event presented huge opportunities for mutual exchanges among participants.
Online Reporter