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Isdore Guvamombe recently in Durban, South Africa
The curtain came down at the Africa Indaba travel and Tourism Expo in Durban, South Africa this weekend with Zimbabwe leaving an ineffaceable mark.
Zimbabwe went to exhibit at Indaba sparkling with confidence courtesy of a paradigm shit of investment policy on the way to do business ushered by the new political dispensation.
Under the new political dispensation, Zimbabwe took the biggest number of exhibitors in its history — 51 private tourism industry companies — and attracted unbelievable attention from prospective investors and its stands at the Indaba were busy throughout the exhibition, with many people inquiring on how to benefit from the tourism and hospitality industry.
Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Prisca Mupfumira had the busiest schedule of her time at this portfolio at the Indaba, as she held meeting after meeting.
She proved really strong physically and mentally as she took on questions of the previous Zimbabwe and how the new political dispensation means to the global tourism and hospitality industry.
She would go into meeting after meeting from morning right to midnight and she was surprisingly up early the next morning.
She has also quickly mastered the industry and is confident in tackling issues, maybe because of her more than 30 years of working in the private sector, before going into politics.
The catch line “Zimbabwe is Open for Business” became “magic” that brought exhibitors, buyers and tourist wholesalers alike from across the globe to overwhelm the Zimbabwean stand at this year’s Indaba.
It the inquiries and the pledges are anything to go by, Zimbabwe’s tourism landscape will change drastically and the country’s tourism fortunes will surge.
Of particular interest was the freeing of the investment legislation and policy that required 49/51 that had deterred many investors to come to Zimbabwe.
The recent upgrading of 29 countries from applying for visas in their countries of origin to the port of entry in Zimbabwe, has also breathed a new lease of life into the tourism and hospitality industry.
The potential investors were also charmed by the reduction of police from the roads which they said would effectively bring back self-drive tourist, who, for years, had avoided Zimbabwe for other countries citing police brutality.
Before the hiatus, drive-in tourists and backpackers were the mainstay of the tourism industry, but a brutal over-policing of the roads ground drive-in tourism to a halt.
As Minister Mupfumira put it in one of her addresses at Indaba, one would need to budget more than a thousand dollars to pay police between Beitbridge Border Post and Bulawayo, which is less than 400 kilometres.
That, obvious, was deterrent enough for nay tourist.
But, according to Minister Mupfumira, soon after the new Government removed heavy police presence and transformed the approach of the few on the roads, self-drive tourism started crawling back into the country.
Minister Mupfumira took each and every opportunity at the Indaba to tell the world tourism family that Zimbabwe had changed.
Zimbabwe has a new thinking, a new thrust and indeed new investor-friendly policies and that it was open to doing business with all and sundry.
Another development was that the meeting Minister Mupfumira and her South African counterpart Mr Derek Hanekom, was the shift is doing business at the Beitbridge Border Post, were both sides have agreed to speed up the clearing of travellers.
The border post is the nerve centre of road traffic for SADC region and beyond and needs to be dealt with to reduce bureaucratic bungling.
It became a central subject at Indaba.
The Victoria Falls continued to hog the limelight as the place everyone wanted to go and every business person wanted to invest, but Minister Mupfumira made it categorically clear that the entire country was open for tourism business.
She also explained to many exhibitors that the Government of Zimbabwe had declared a special tourism economic zone around Victoria Falls.
The SEZ stretches from Hwange and includes the animal corridor between Hwange and Victoria Fall up to Mlibizi in Binga on the southernmost part of Lake Kariba.
With teeming wildlife, picturesque views, rolling mountains, vast swathe of virgin land teeming with wildlife, from the elephant to the gnu and lion, the SEZ for tourism is a sure tourist attraction that provides an assortment of investment opportunities.
The Zambezi River adds not only the grandeur and ambience, but its water provides the much needed lifeline for any new development.
When all is said, Zimbabwe indeed left an indelible mark at Indaba and an array of follow up meetings and subsequent real investments coupled with an avalanche of tourists, is a reality. Zimbabwe is indeed open for business and Durban provided just that timely opportunity for Zimbabwe.
In short, Zimbabwe went to Durban with a total package that could trigger an avalanche of tourist arrival into the country.
The time for Zimbabwe to recover lost business, lost market and lost investor confidence is now.
Tourists are now for Zimbabwe to lose.
Online Reporter