Retosa upsets student

The Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (Retosa), which was running a youth in tourism competition, last week disappointed a finalist, Shamylah Zimuto, when they turned her away from a trip to Namibia in favour of for someone else.Shamylah (17), who had been told that her essay had qualified for the next stage to be held in Namibia, was left with egg on her face when she found, just a day before departure, that she was no longer going.

It turned out the organisers had not informed her that she was a stand-in for another student who was not sure she would secure travel documents in time.

The generous teen, who is a boarder at Chinhoyi High School, said she did not have any hard feelings towards the organisers although they should have warned her in advance.

Narrating her ordeal, Shamylah said she had entered the competition after seeing calls for entries in Cool Lifestyle’s November 9 issue.
“I was excited when I was called by the organisers who were in South Africa. Although I had put a lot of work into the research before submitting the speech, I was not sure I would impress the judges. They told me to prepare for the finals to be held in Namibia in two days,” she said.

Meanwhile, Retosa’s inaugural Youth in Tourism Essay Competition was held in Walvis Bay, Namibia, on Friday last week.

The competition was held under the theme, “Turning Southern Africa into a Competitive Green Tourism Destination”.

The essay competition has been running from August and the submission of entries closed last month.

The competition ran parallel to the Southern Africa Research Planners Conference in Namibia.

“Participants of the essay competition were drawn from the 15 Sadc countries namely Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We have been unable to establish the Zimbabwean rep by the time of going to print.

Those that qualified gave presentations on the topic: “What my government should do to turn my country into the best green tourism destination in the world”.

The objective of the competition includes facilitating the mainstreaming of tourism into the education system across the region as well as helping schoolchildren to understand all the natural and cultural tourism resources available, their value and contribution to the economy. — Cool Writer.