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Patrick Chitumba Victoria Falls Reporter
Enterprising Victoria Falls residents are renting out their houses for the duration of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation general assembly as all hotels are fully booked with almost 150 countries confirming that they would be sending delegates. In an interview in the resort town of Victoria Falls yesterday, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Engineer Walter Mzembi said by yesterday 147 countries had confirmed participation with more than 650 rooms having been booked so far.
“Six hundred and fifty delegates have been booked and these have paid for the accommodation. One hundred and forty seven countries have also confirmed participation at the general assembly. So the response is very overwhelming. We are happy and good to go,” he said.
Zimbabwe and Zambia are co-hosting the meeting in Victoria Falls and Livingstone from 24 to 29 August.
UNWTO has 155 member countries and its membership includes six associate members and over 400 affiliate members representing the private sector, educational institutions, tourism associations and local tourism authorities.
Turning to the issue where some residents have reportedly vacated their homes to make way for guests, Minister Mzembi said he had always supported the idea of house hospitality where residents or villagers offer their houses or villages for a fee.
“People are leasing their homes for delegates. This is the future we must see and we must see house hospitality as a business. As we work towards making Victoria Falls a conferencing hub, we must also see locals benefiting from tourism,” he said.
He said people should learn to clean their environment and homes so that they benefit from house hospitality.
“From the policy level, we have been consistent with the view that the people of Victoria Falls must benefit from the general assembly. There is also a policy paper that will be released soon that highlights the need to empower locals in the tourism sector,” he said.
“The entry point for locals is also on the supply chain. If we want to talk of indigenisation it will take us time to know who is who in the industry but through the supply chain, locals can supply vegetables, meat and thus get empowered.”
He said Zanu-PF party had won the election because it spoke of total empowerment, an election manifesto which he said was going to be fulfilled in the next five years.
“That is why people voted for Zanu-PF.
We are going to enforce for locals to get into the supply chain in the tourism industry and we also want to extend the Statutory Instruments 124 and 125 on the waiver of duty on capital goods for the tourism sector. As Zanu-PF we are going to carry on with these things,” he said.
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