adminsaid here last Friday.
Mr Chidzidzi told Herald Business at the International Tourism Bourse in Berlin that ZTA was on course to achieving objectives at the world’s leading travel and tourism event.
“Inquiries about Zimbabwe tourism have been fantastic, but the downside and disheartening fact about it all has been the absence of most local tour operators who are sitting on the fence at home instead of grabbing platforms presented by exhibition shows such as the ITB Berlin to promote the destination.
“Tour wholesalers are now seriously packaging Zimbabwe because some were just doing add-ons, one day, two nights here, three nights there, but now we are seeing a trend whereby there is renewed interest in offering Zimbabwe as a stand-alone destination with 10- to 12-night tours.
“The interest from the media has also been encouraging as you know the media is very important in the sense that they propagate positive information about the destination,” he said.
Dr Sabine Gebele, the founder of German tour operator Dakari Safaris, said they have taken it upon themselves to repackage data on various aspects of Zimbabwe’s tourism by creating a website on Zimbabwe tourism amid revelations that some of the available information on the country is now outdated.
To that end, ZTA also took the opportunity presented by international media such as Euro Sport, radio stations from Berlin, magazines, online, print and electronic media from in and outside Germany to promote the diverse attractions the country has including teeming wildlife to nature, people and culture.
With more than 170 000 visitors, among them 108 00 trade visitors and over 10 000 visitors from over 170 countries, ITB Berlin is the leading business-to-business platform in the tourism industry.
In addition, as the show that stages the world’s largest tourism convention, ITB Berlin Convention, the exhibition provides opportunities to benefit from the world’s leading think-tanks on the tourism industry.
There, however, were only 11 participants on Zimbabwe’s exhibition stand during the 45th edition of the International Tourism Bourse. This year marks the 31st time that Zimbabwe has exhibited at the event.
More than 11 127 exhibitors from across the globe were expected to attend the premier global tourism and travel bourse – with a total of 8 490 foreign exhibitors while the remainder was expected from Germany.
But despite the massive marketing and promotion opportunities that the show offers most tour operators from Zimbabwe apparently found it of little value to make sacrifices to be part of the global showcase yet smaller countries such as Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi and Uganda had their stands teeming with exhibitors.
Mr Chidzidzi bemoaned the failure by local tour operators to take up their offer to meet the cost of the exhibition stand with operators only expected to take care of their travelling and accommodations costs to be part of the global travel and tourism showcase.
“The absence of most tour operators really affects (efforts to promote Zimbabwe) negatively and in a big way and I would like to reiterate the frustrations that our chief executive (Mr Karikoga Kaseke) has already expressed. When coming to these fairs we are not marketing specific products, but Zimbabwe as a destination because as ZTA we do not have the product in our hands,” said Mr Chidzidzi.
“The product is in the hands of the private sector and coming to a strategic and major show such as this one and you see the absence of major tour operators and other service providers like car hire companies is really like going to the market without the product. When we are here we find it difficult because the tour operators we engage want to deal with their kind,” he said.
Mr Chidzidzi said they have had to link up local tour operators with their foreign counterparts by phone or e-mails, although this could have been done easily, quickly and in greater numbers at the ITB than indirectly through the domestic tourism regulator.
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