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Patrick Chitumba
Vice-President Joice Mujuru recently declared that the country was ready to co-host the 20th session of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) general assembly which runs from 24 to 29 August in Zambia and Zimbabwe. The declaration gave the tourism industry in Victoria Falls a clear acknowledgment that the preparatory work they did to host delegates who will descend on Zimbabwe is very encouraging.
In her remarks at a prize-giving gala dinner held at Victoria Falls Hotel last week, VP Mujuru said the country was ready to welcome the delegates from all over the world coming in for the tourism indaba.
“I am happy to declare to the world that we are ready to co-host the UNWTO general assembly with Zambia,” said VP Mujuru last week.
In this light, I went around the resort town on a fact finding mission, from the Victoria Falls International Airport to the lodges and hotels that were accredited by Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) to host delegates.
After all is said and done, and after all the negative publicity that the country has been receiving from some elements in the local , regional and international media as they sought to discredit the country’s state of preparedness, one wonders what they are feeling now considering that the country is ready to welcome the world for the general assembly which is nine days away.
The required infrastructure for the hosting of a truly African general assembly is now in place.
One tour operator jokingly said, “We are also going to co-host the general assembly without MDC-T after they received a thorough beating from the revolutionary party Zanu-PF.”
The stage has been set and what the country awaits is the arrival of the world to Victoria Falls..
The Victoria Falls International Airport has been upgraded to meet international standards. The departure and arrival lounges are now spacious and elegantly furnished. From the airport, the expansion and resurfacing of the 21km stretch of road from the airport to Victoria Falls town is complete.
The Zimbabwe Council for Tourism (ZCT) has also said it is satisfied with the preparatory work going on.
ZCT president Glenn Stutchbury said: “Tourism operators in Zimbabwe are looking forward to this event, which will have a major impact on business and will have longer term advantage for the Zimbabwean travel and tourism sector.”
“Operators are all playing a role in helping to make sure Victoria Falls is ready for the congress.They are already geared to meet increased demand for their services,” he said.
A total of $16 million was spent by hotel groups on refurbishments and these include the Kingdom Hotel , A’ Zambezi River Lodge, Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, Victoria Falls Hotel, the Cresta Sprayview Hotel, Elephant Hills, the Rainbow Hotel and Ilala Lodge.
At Elephant Hills Hotel, the venue of the conference, the Victoria Falls Marquee Convention Centre, a temporary structure with a lifespan of 25 years, which could be used for other future summits, has been completed.
To also get the feel of the state of preparedness of the handling staff, I checked in at the Kingdom Hotel and I must admit that the training workshops that were conducted by the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry on protocol really worked wonders because of the improved service at the hotel. The hotel staff said they were ready to make Zimbabwe proud by offering the very best of services.
From the ever-smiling and welcoming butlers at the hotel entrance, to the smiling ladies and gentlemen at the guest relations desk, I was impressed with the service they gave me.
I commend the ministry for the protocol workshops which were attended by front office personnel, taxi drivers and other people in the tourism sector who handle clients.
The Kingdom Hotel feels like you are on a movie location! The décor, the staff, location all combine to make you feel like you are somewhere on dreamland. The hotel has many fine features – huge dinner area, pools are clean and inviting, and the décor including the tusks topping all the building,” said Mr Stutchbury.
He said there were many channels available on their bouquet in the rooms and they also provided with free Wi-Fi connection making it easy for one to make use of social media platforms.
The hotel has a lot of entertainment activities including a casino for gamblers and a popular night club in Vic Falls, Wild Thing Action Bar.
Enough of accommodation, there is also the new state-of-the-art Premier Services Medical Investments (PSMI) medical facility which has opened its doors to the members of the public.
The Victoria Falls Hospital is also undergoing a multimillion dollar facelift to make it a state of the art medical centre.
Zesa has also completed upgrading Victoria Falls’ electricity supply station meaning no power cuts during and after the tourism indaba in the resort town.
TelOne recently commissioned the $2million Victoria Falls optic fibre transmission link, making the resort town a cyber-city ahead of the general assembly. The general assembly has been dubbed “paperless” indaba since everything will be done through internet services.
With the optic fibre ring covering the whole of Victoria Falls town with the capacity of connecting each access point in either direction – every area including hotels, lodges and residential areas now have access to fast and cheap internet services.
Hotels, restaurants and stakeholders in Victoria Falls embarked on a massive facelift in line with Government preparations.
Since Victoria Falls is a tourist resort, delegates will be spoilt for choice with activities to do including a guided tour of the Victoria Falls Rainforest, elephant-back safaris, lion walks, game drives, white water rafting on the Zambezi River, canoeing, bungee jumping, zip line, bridge tours, helicopter flights over the Victoria Falls popularly known as the Flight of Angels, game walks and cultural village tours.
This is the first time that UNWTO general assembly is being held in southern Africa and the second time it is being held on the African continent after Senegal hosted it in 2007.
More than 1 200 delegates, among them ministers of tourism from 186 countries, captains of the tourism industry, tourist wholesalers and stakeholders are expected in Victoria Falls. The Indaba comes just after the country’s harmonised elections which have been given a thumbs up by many international organisations invited to observe the elections.The country will take the opportunity to market itself to the outside world as a tourists destination of first choice. Many tourists attending the general assembly are expected to remain behind after the indaba to visit other tourists destinations in other parts of the country.
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derick.khumalo