adminZIMBABWE’S leading tourism travel exhibition, Sanganai/Hlanganani, will this year seek to break new ground in a bid to give the expo a business approach that will create much needed value for exhibitors after rebranding the concept, an official said.
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) head corporate affairs Mr Sugar Chagonda said the 7th edition of the tourism travel expo had been rebranded and would focus on providing a business to business exchange earmarked for key decision makers who can conclude business deals and establish relationships on site.
The expo initially known as Sanganai/Hlanganani World Travel and Tourism Africa Fair with the catch line “where the world meets Africa” has been rebranded to Sanganai/Hlanganani Travel and Tourism Expo with the catch line “Africa’s premier business exchange.”
“An unveiling of the rebranded concept will be done before the expo for all tourism stakeholders to have an understanding of what we intend to achieve and what the new focus is all about. In the past we have had people complaining that the fair focuses a lot on leisure that is why we want to give it a new business approach,” said Mr Chagonda.
Mr Chagonda said this year’s edition would be held from 16-18 October at the Harare International Conference Centre and activities would include a business exhibition and various tourism business forums.
He said registration was still in progress for exhibitors.
He said five workshops would run concurrently with the expo as part of the rebranding and these include the Young professional forum, Greening the economy, Marketing Zimbabwe in various source markets, Informational Communication Technology and social media as well as the Professional conference organisers workshop.
“The Professional conference organisers thrust is on MICE tourism which has been very profitable and here players in the sector will exchange ideas on how to take advantage of this growing concept,” he said.
African Sun owned hotel, Elephant Hills resort in Victoria Falls, which has lately been host to a number of major conferences (part of MICE tourism concept) like the UNWTO summit and Sadc summit said the hotel’s main revenue was derived from accommodation so conferencing was supporting revenues to accommodation.
“The Elephant Hills Resort offers the most modern and upmarket conferencing facilities in the country. The hotel offers a selection of eight conference rooms, ranging in size from 14 to 500 delegates. A total capacity of 1 000 can be achieved in the rooms themselves. The hotel is in the process of completing an upgrade of its conferencing equipment in line with global standards,” said Ms Alana Chinhara, African Sun spokesperson.
The hospitality sector said there were immense benefits from the MICE tourism concept.
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