adminKudzanai Gerede
Zimbabwe’s tourist arrivals will double by next year as development on the Tourism Special Economic Zone in the resort town of Victoria Falls that will see the setting up of an integrated tourism resort park gathers momentum coupled by the finalization of the Victoria Falls Airport which is expected to accommodate more international airlines boosting tourist activity, Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Engineer Walter Mzembi has hinted.
Speaking at the sidelines of the National Tourism Master Plan Breakfast Awareness Meeting in Harare on Monday, the Minister said as of late last year, his ministry was now in possession of title deeds for the land property government had granted back in 2013 during the 20th Session of UNWTO General Assembly co-hosted by Zimbabwe and Zambia and they were now tasked with developing the area into a modern integrated tourism park.
“B y 2017 we should be around 3 million arrivals in tourists, I’m taking Victoria Falls into consideration, that’s why we built it, to land arrivals and to see them up, so it will be a game changer in this respect,” Minister Mzembi said.
“Ours is to implement, we have entitlement now into a core hacterage that is part of the bigger Economic Zone in Victoria Falls, so we have to start now.
“It starts by way of issuing an international expression of interest for local, regional and international investors to respond to this economic opportunity, developing an integrated Tourism resort park in the destination of Victoria Falls,” he added.
By setting up an integrated tourism park in Victoria Falls, Government plans to create a similar version of the Niagra falls found in Canada which attracts millions of tourists and generates over US$ 400 million annually.
Zimbabwe currently records an average of 1,5 million tourist arrivals.
The Ministry is currently developing a Tourism Master Plan that will act as an overarching guide to development of tourism, providing a road map for specific development imperatives in practical framework and providing insight and development of priority segments in the tourism economy and value chains with special focus on youth and rural integration.
The project being funded by the African Development Bank and technically assisted by an Italian based consultancy firm, Keios is a five-year plan which will be completed by mid year, and will be reviewed every year.
Keios Consultant, Mr Peter Nizette said Zimbabwe up to now did not have a Master tourism plan because it simply did not require one because of its impressive pedigree in the tourism sector which only succumbed to negative portrayal since the turn of the century.
He said the country should now diversify its destination markets by spreading tourism linkages into rural areas where ordinary people’s livlihoods in remote areas were potential tourist pullers if integrated not the national tourism package.
“Yes, Victoria Falls is important bit it cannot always be about Victoria Falls. Diversification creates a future for people in other outlying areas as well as rural areas. Young people (in rural areas) will not see the need to move to towns in search of jobs and end up in the streets,” he said.
Online Reporter