adminThe four-day tourism event, organised by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, is running under the theme, “Celebrating African Tourism Diversity”.
In an interview, ZTA public relations and protocol manager Ms Salome Chari said: “Buyers have started arriving. They started arriving last week.”
A 20-member Chinese delegation comprising buyers, journalists and investors jetted into the country last week.
Over the weekend seven buyers from the US and eleven from the United Kingdom arrived in the country.
“The delegates are still arriving and we expect more before the fair,” she said.
Other buyers are expected from Singapore, Italy, Russia and Indonesia.
At least 85 foreign buyers are expected at this year’s Sanganai/Hlanganani tourism fair.
The annual tourism trade fair provides a platform for Zimbabwe to expose its tourism products ahead of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation general assembly in August next year.
The expo showcases a wide variety of Africa’s tourism products and attracts international buyers, exhibitors and visitors from across the world.
Exhibition space at this year’s event has increased by 26 percent to 5 090 square metres while 4 036 square metres was taken up in 2011.
In terms of exhibitors, the number is also expected to increase from 746 last year to 1 200 this year.
Zimbabwe is the second largest tourism destination in Southern Africa behind South Africa on the back of continued efforts to develop new methods of improving the sector.
Zimbabwe’s tourist arrivals presently stands at around 2,2 million per year.
At the height of negative publicity and onslaught by some international media organisations, Zimbabwe’s tourist arrivals plummeted to as low as 1,2 million down from 2,4 million in 2004.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter