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Phineas Chauke
THE relationship between tourism and national branding is a cyclical one with no clear ends and beginnings. It is a mutualistic one where they both feed and revitalise each other.
Today’s focus, however, is on exploring the gains accruing from tourism to the national branding ideal. In Zimbabwe the issue of branding ourselves as a nation is topical and significant in our quest to correct the negative perceptions that have been harboured and propagated outside our borders.
Through tourism, fallacies about Zimbabwe are reversed and replaced with a positive narrative that captures the reality of our well-endowed country with its beautiful, warm and hospitable people.
Tourism allows us an opportunity to proudly present our beauty and tell our own story, which when configured on the international grand stage, is capable of winning back lost friends, creating new ones and even converting perennial foes to darlings. Sometimes it only takes one day spent with a person for them to realise you are actually very nice contrary to what they believed about you.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) defines tourism as “a traditional instrument that enables culture to be rehabilitated and made known to the rest of the world”. Culture itself is an attractive force that draws people to visit and experience other people’s world view and for countries like Zimbabwe the intricate, dovetailing connection between culture and nature is mind blowing and awe-inspiring.
The point here is that while tourist numbers are not as high as we would want, it is our responsibility to light a fire in the hearts of those who come and make advocates out of them. Let the Zimbabwean message burn in their hearts like what the biblical prophet Jeremiah described as “a fire shut into my bones, I am weary of holding it in, I can not do it” (Jeremiah 20:9). To borrow from Jesus Christ’s wise words, our service to those that step on our beloved land should whisper to them a clear and compelling commission, “go yea therefore, to all corners of the world” and make friends of all nations for Zimbabwe.
Providers of tourist services across Zimbabwe should embrace the responsibility to represent the country well and not only make an impression for their companies or services. A chance to host a single tourist should be viewed as a big opportunity to recruit a representative of Zimbabwe in their country.
In that way tourism becomes a vital tool that unlocks opportunities for all social and economic sectors of the nation on the international arena. While the country has diplomatic missions in many countries across the globe doing their bit in promoting brand Zimbabwe, their shortcoming is that they are selling the metaphorical “cat in the bag” since there is no physical, tangible evidence of the great message they are conveying within close reach.
Our local tourism service providers are the well positioned resident ambassadors who provide the actual Zimbabwean experience to our foreign visitors, thereby complementing the efforts of the foreign-based diplomats.
With this great potential that tourism wields, the Government should really consider it as a critical sector for national economic development and render it all the support it needs.
It is the window through which the world can get an unblinkered view of who we really are and what makes us what we are. People can only embrace us when they know us. The Government should certainly take an active interest in the training and accreditation of the representatives who carry the crucial responsibility to present Zimbabwe to the outside world.
This is the point where we get to talk about the unsung heroes of national branding — the tour guides, also known by titles tourist guide, safari guide, field guide, tour host among others, depending on the nature of the attraction or organisation they work for.
These are the hands-on people who attend to our visitors, ensure their safety and show them the beauty of Zimbabwe. Tour guides are tasked with interpreting the nation’s natural and cultural heritage and everything that characterises Zimbabwe to the visitors.
How the visitor views or perceives Zimbabwe by the time they leave the country depends on a big part on the performance of these people. Their performance depends on the knowledge they have about the heritage and also the soft skills they have to articulate that knowledge in an informative and captivating manner that leaves the visitor endeared to the country and its people.
The Government should take an active role in equipping the guides with the right substance to present our story in the best interest of the nation. Right now, there is a licensing mechanism for guides in the country, which is ranked highly in the region for nature guiding, but if I should be honest, the socio-cultural aspect of the people of Zimbabwe is not adequately captured in the criterion for that accreditation.
It is critical to note at this point that national branding is to build a perception about people more than any other aspect of the country.
A nation is its people above anything else. What would be ideal is a tour guide who is capable of fusing both nature and culture in their narrative in a manner that provides our visitor with a window into our cosmology as a people.
Now, which narrative is being peddled across the industry? Are the various versions painting a common picture that tick the national branding box?
In fact the big question is, is the government not interested in that story? More could certainly be done at national level in the direction of crafting and framing our narrative, it doesn’t have to be exaggerated or artificially sweetened, it has to be original. On that note, the narrative should also not be deliberately laced with demeaning connotations that erode the dignity of Zimbabweans in the eyes of the visitors.
Now, where is all that coming from? It is futile to have some quarters within the industry where the animals, mountains, rivers and forests are portrayed as awesome but the native people are dismissed as uncivilised and undeserving of any positive attention.
Tourism as a whole is a beautiful industry that should be rid of racism and other negativities that defeat our national branding cause.
Outside the conventional business realm, branding is not limited to the impressions created and communicated by those within the entity, competition or foes can also brand you in a certain manner and it sticks. The point is if you do not actively brand yourself some other people will. If we don’t determine our story and tell the story, somebody will tell the world about you and that is very dangerous. You are never truly free as long as you are not free to talk about yourself to the world. Apart from knowledge of the tourism products we have in Zimbabwe, tour guides need proper training in marketing and the art of presentation that highlights Zimbabwe’s unique selling points not only as a tourism destination but also as an investment destination and a progressive member of the global community.
Tourism is a strategic industry that can achieve a number of ideals for the nation.
–Phineas Chauke is a Tourism Consultant, Marketer and Tour Guide. He can be contacted email: [email protected]/ or 0776058523.
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