adminIsdore Guvamombe Tourism Matrix
ONCE again, Zimbabwe is at the cynosure of the world. Hardly two months after successfully hosting the United Nations World Tourism Organisation General Assembly, Zimbabwe is back in the international limelight with more than 1 600 local and international exhibitors meeting in Harare for the three-day international travel and tourism exposition, the Sanganai/Hlanganani — World Travel and Tourism Africa Fair.
The fair is an annual international tourism trade fair organised by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority to showcase Zimbabwe’s tourism offerings to world- acclaimed tourist wholesalers, governments, tourism boards and investors.
ZTA chief executive officer Karikoga Kaseke is on cloud nine after putting up a mega event at a time when the industry could have suffered from fatigue from hosting the UNWTO General Assembly.
Soon after the UNWTO, ZTA — the marketing vanguard of the tourism and hospitality industry — put its act together and the industry responded by putting up some of the most exciting exhibitions at the Harare International Conference Centre.
Being the biggest tourism exposition in Southern Africa, outside the Indaba of South Africa, Sanganai/Hlanganani showcases the widest variety of Africa’s best tourism products, and attracts international visitors and media from across the world. This is precisely the reason why it is known as the place “Where the World Meets Africa”.
At least 1 441 exhibitors and 208 international buyers have confirmed their participation, with some of them having already arrived.
The main event will be the business conference in which key speakers were Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Engineer Walter Mzembi, Rainbow Tourism Group chief executive Tendai Madzivanyika, Zimbabwe International Trade Fair president Mr Daniel Chigaru and ZTA chief executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke, among others.
The fair is the successor of Shanyai/Vakatshani, the Zimbabwe International Travel Expo (ZITE) that was held annually at the IICC.
ZITE started as a small expo in 1982 and grew to become one of Africa’s leading tourism showcases by 2007.
The past four editions of Sanganai/Hlanganani were a resounding success and attracted the leading African destinations and major world tourism markets such as South Africa, Botswana, Malaysia, China, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Indonesia, Italy and many others.
The editions have seen the whole world descending on Zimbabwe in the form of high calibre international buyers as well as exhibitors, hence achieving its main purpose of bringing the world to Africa, “Where the World Meets Africa”.
The 20123 edition will be held in Harare under the theme, “Celebrating Africa’s Tourism Diversity” and is expected to ride on the successes gained by previous editions and the UNWTO General Assembly held in Victoria Falls in August and is therefore an opportunity not to be missed.
l Feedback: [email protected]
Online Reporter