malvernmugadzikwa
Online Reporter
THE tourism industry needs to work closely with communities to improve the people’s livelihoods, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Barbara Rwodzi has said.
She said this during the inaugural Tourism and Conservation Conference in Harare today.
The event was running under the theme “Making Tourism Easier and Bigger Through Wildlife.”
Minister Rwodzi emphasised the need for communities to benefit from resources in their areas.
“UN tourism has policies for sustainable tourism and one of them is to go green. The other one is to involve communities at every level, which is what we are working on.
“We are including that in our strategies to see how we involve communities in tourism through providing employment and infrastructure for them,” she said.
Wild Africa Fund Southern Africa director, Guy Jennings said there was a need to continuously tell the Zimbabwean story to bring in more tourists.
“Zimbabwe is blessed with wildlife and some of the best national parks in the world. We want to help bring in more people to tour the country.
“The idea is to see how we can celebrate the successes that Zimbabwe has had and see how we can develop new strategies to boost the sector,” he said.
Online Reporter