Government Emphasises Peace for Sustainable Tourism

The government has said the prevailing peace is critical in supporting sustainable tourism development as the sector is sensitive to non-peaceful environments.

Speaking during a World Tourism Day symposium held at Lupane State University on Thursday, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Deputy Minister Tongai Mnangagwa said there is more to benefit from a peaceful environment in the country. He said tourism is a low-hanging fruit for the country’s development agenda. The symposium was running under the theme “Tourism and Peace,” in recognition of tranquility.

“Tourism is a low-hanging fruit with great potential to create jobs for communities, bringing happiness to families, communities, and the nation at large. Let me hasten to also say tourism is a very sensitive sector which shuns away from non-peaceful environments. Hence it is within our interests to ensure we remain peaceful as a country for the good of our citizenry and the nation at large,” said Deputy Minister Mnangagwa.

“Zimbabwe is a peaceful country and we are being challenged to discuss tourism and peace. This means there are unstable elements, challenges, or turbulences somewhere or somehow, that we need to address collaboratively using tourism as a tool to ensure we have social peace, economic peace, cultural peace, environmental peace, and community peace for the good of our nation.”

He said the country can achieve sustainable peace in the tourism sector through community engagements.

“Community peace is possible through community tourism enterprises and managing human-wildlife conflicts, environmental peace through environmental management awareness, climate change mitigation and adaptation, among others. In order to have cultural peace, we should preserve and promote our diverse cultures, a step which has already been taken by the First Lady of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Dr. A. Mnangagwa. She has introduced various programs aimed at preserving our culture and heritage, such as promoting local cuisine through gastronomy tourism, gota/nhanga, as well as promoting the national fabric, among others,” he said.

-@nqotshili