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Roberta Katunga Senior Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE has qualified to compete for the Routes world top destination marketing award after emerging the best tourism authority for 2014 in Africa and Middle East. The Routes marketing awards are highly regarded as the most prestigious awards in the industry as they are voted for and judged by the airline network planning community. ZTA chief executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke said the authority qualified by virtue of beating the Tourism Ministry of Egypt and Egyptian Tourist Authority, Tanzania Tourist Board and Jordan Tourism Board and displaying innovative strategies.
“We were required to do a presentation in a manner guided by what the airlines say and afterwards these presentations were taken to a panel. We also submitted evidence to support our presentation of all the work we had done in 2014,” said Mr Kaseke.
He said the authority would continue to engage the necessary stakeholders to market the country as the best destination although funding remained a crippling factor as marketing required substantial funding.
He said funding was required to pay for critical services way in advance to enable the country to be as competitive as global best practice demands.
“As an authority, we are doing our best to market the destination but in order to do so we need money. We need to fully host quality international buyers and media as done the world over by those destinations we think are doing well in terms of tourism business,” said Mr Kaseke.
He said ZTA would compete for the world award at the Routes world forum to be held in Durban in September with other regions that include Europe, Asia and Australia.
Speaking on the holding of events in the country like the Sanganai/Hlanganani expo, Mr Kaseke said Sanganai had the potential to turn around the face of the tourism industry if it was given the priority and attention required from the Government.
“We may do our best in promoting the event but our tourism expo speaks otherwise, giving the world a wrong picture about Zimbabwe as a destination,” he said.
The expo starts in Harare on Thursday and ends on Saturday.
At least 20 international exhibitors from countries that include Namibia, Malawi, India, Botswana, Mauritius and Angola have confirmed their participation while more than 90 buyers are also expected to grace the expo.
Tourism in the country has been identified as one of the pillars to spur economic growth and has been identified as a low hanging fruit that can bear instant results if harnessed properly.
Online Reporter