Blessings Chidakwa Herald Reporter

THE Rural Enterprise Development Trust has gone into overdrive promoting rural tourism as a way of broadening the national economic base through development and unlocking of opportunities in rural areas.

Trust chairman Mr Israel Thompson said the promotion of rural tourism comes out of a realisation that there is a lot of pressure on resources in urban areas caused by rural-to-urban migration.

“We are trying to develop these rural areas so that we broaden our economic base to enable rural youths to also get employment and so limit this migration.

“We are mainly focusing on tourism, agriculture, value addition and mining. At the moment there is a lot of tourism intervention that we are doing as a trust where we are coming up with camps or trips throughout Zimbabwe,” he said.

Mr Thompson said the tourism sector is mainly concentrated on the bigger attraction sites like Victoria Falls, Kariba, Great Zimbabwe and Chinhoyi Caves.

“In every rural area and district there are those unique places, cultural heritage and sacred places. There are cultural practices that are not being preserved or marketed.

“We have realised that to broaden our tourism product there are a lot of other products that we need to add in rural areas. There are places like Kanyemba, Save Conservancy which are less spoken about in terms of tourism in Zimbabwe,” he said.

Mr Thompson said Zimbabweans that are tourism savvy who have been travelling for a long time are now tired of traditional bigger tourism sites.

“They are looking at other places where they can spend time and relax with their families.

“As a trust we are marketing these communal areas and little known places,” he said.

Mr Thompson said the trust was also going into cultural tourism in different districts where it is interrogating local sites, for example the Binga beach which is not well marketed.

“There are also the Tonga people who are predominantly found in Binga, but a few hardly know of their culture, language and traditions. These are some of the things we are trying to promote and preserve through tourism,” he said.

Mr Thompson said when it comes to agriculture, the trust was promoting investment in rural areas where people have to use communal lands.

“Most people think that if you want to be considered a farmer you have to own a big piece of land, an A2 model farm under the land reform.

“There are a lot of smaller pieces of land in the rural areas that are under-used.

“In our rural areas nearly every family has more than four hectares of land that is being underused yet having perennial food shortages even importing produce from other countries yet we have that land lying idle,” he said.

Mr Thompson said the trust was trying to promote the maximum use of communal land.

Blessings Chidakwa Herald Reporter

THE Rural Enterprise Development Trust has gone into overdrive promoting rural tourism as a way of broadening the national economic base through development and unlocking of opportunities in rural areas.

Trust chairman Mr Israel Thompson said the promotion of rural tourism comes out of a realisation that there is a lot of pressure on resources in urban areas caused by rural-to-urban migration.

“We are trying to develop these rural areas so that we broaden our economic base to enable rural youths to also get employment and so limit this migration.

“We are mainly focusing on tourism, agriculture, value addition and mining. At the moment there is a lot of tourism intervention that we are doing as a trust where we are coming up with camps or trips throughout Zimbabwe,” he said.

Mr Thompson said the tourism sector is mainly concentrated on the bigger attraction sites like Victoria Falls, Kariba, Great Zimbabwe and Chinhoyi Caves.

“In every rural area and district there are those unique places, cultural heritage and sacred places. There are cultural practices that are not being preserved or marketed.

“We have realised that to broaden our tourism product there are a lot of other products that we need to add in rural areas. There are places like Kanyemba, Save Conservancy which are less spoken about in terms of tourism in Zimbabwe,” he said.

Mr Thompson said Zimbabweans that are tourism savvy who have been travelling for a long time are now tired of traditional bigger tourism sites.

“They are looking at other places where they can spend time and relax with their families.

“As a trust we are marketing these communal areas and little known places,” he said.

Mr Thompson said the trust was also going into cultural tourism in different districts where it is interrogating local sites, for example the Binga beach which is not well marketed.

“There are also the Tonga people who are predominantly found in Binga, but a few hardly know of their culture, language and traditions. These are some of the things we are trying to promote and preserve through tourism,” he said.

Mr Thompson said when it comes to agriculture, the trust was promoting investment in rural areas where people have to use communal lands.

“Most people think that if you want to be considered a farmer you have to own a big piece of land, an A2 model farm under the land reform.

“There are a lot of smaller pieces of land in the rural areas that are under-used.

“In our rural areas nearly every family has more than four hectares of land that is being underused yet having perennial food shortages even importing produce from other countries yet we have that land lying idle,” he said.

Mr Thompson said the trust was trying to promote the maximum use of communal land.