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Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
THE last-minute cancellation of last week’s African Marketing Confederation (AMC) inaugural summit in Victoria Falls was a result of sensational media reports on Ebola fears and blowing out of proportion of incidents suspected to be linked to the deadly disease, an official has said.
The meeting was supposed to be held from October 15 to 18 in the resort town but had to be localised into a Marketers’ Association of Zimbabwe Conference attended by about 200 delegates.
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) said the cancellation of the summit which was supposed to attract international delegates had a negative bearing on the country’s tourism sector.
ZTA spokesperson Sugar Chagonda said the country had lost a lot of money in potential revenue as a result of negative information being spread about Ebola virus on different media forums.
He said:
“People would’ve booked for accommodation and that affects tourism. We’re worried that issues mustn’t be blown out of proportion as we end up having cancellations even in enquiries.”
He urged the media to desist from sensationalising issues around Ebola.
“The good thing is that in Zimbabwe we don’t have any report as yet and the media shouldn’t distort issues,” he said.
Chagonda said the tourism sector was generally experiencing a positive trend due to conferences taking place and that was boosting receipts.
Institutions that were supposed to send representatives to the marketing summit include Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana, National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, Marketing Society of Kenya, Zambia Institute of Marketing, and the Institute of Marketing Management South Africa.
Only one foreign guest from South Africa, Khethelo Mazibuko attended. Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi recently said individuals and organisations issuing travel bans to the country citing Ebola fears were doing a disservice to the country as none had the mandate to do so.
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derick.khumalo