Member states owe Retosa $860m

The organisation’s chairperson Mrs Fernanda Matsinha said Retosa would soon approach member states to ask them to clear their arrears.
Retosa is a tourism grouping comprising 14 countries in Southern Africa whose common vision is to foster regional tourism integration and growth.
Member states are Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia,          South Africa, Swaziland, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The non-payment of contributions has been largely            attributed to the high level of ignorance of the tourism grouping’s programmes at political level by member states as well as high staff turnover of tourism ministers and permanent secretaries in the region.
Responding to written questions by Business Chronicle, Mrs Matsinha said: “The board will encourage member states to ensure that they pay their contributions according to their respective budget cycles.
“The board will direct the secretariat to aggressively lobby heads of tourism ministries to strictly adhere to the payment structures in places.”
She said the major challenges facing Retosa in trying to promote regional tourism growth and development included negative perceptions about the region such as poverty, safety and security, and crime.
“The region is perceived as long-haul destination. The low-levels of standards and quality of services and products in the tourism sector are some of the major challenges facing Retosa in its endeavours,” she said.
To overcome these challenges, Mrs Matsinha said Retosa was working on a formulation of regional tourism growth and development strategy that defines the harmonisation and classification of standards, aggressive and more effective approaches to marketing and promoting the region as single but multifaceted destinations.
The regional tourism growth and development strategy will also focus on enhancing public relations activities to change perceptions about Southern Africa.
Meanwhile, Mrs Matsinha said at a recent Retosa                        board meeting the organisation pledged to support               Zimbabwe and Zambia as they prepare to co-host the United Nations World Tourism Organisation General Assembly in           2013.
“Retosa will facilitate and co-ordinate the support                                of the entire region for the event. Retosa will lend its               expertise to assist the two countries organise the event,” she  said.