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The conference will attract around 3 000 delegates from about 180 countries, which will help promote the country as a prime tourist destination.
Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi said he was enthusiastic about getting the chance to host the conference as it brings the “two sister republics (Zimbabwe and Zambia) together” .
Zimbabwe has a seat on the UNWTO and winning the bid to host the conference will be a major coup for the country and Southern Africa as a whole.
“I like the idea of dedicating one of the roundtables to gain support for our bid to host the 2013, UNWTO General Assembly in Victoria Falls/ Livingstone,” he said.
Mr Mzembi will be a keynote speaker at this year’s International Institute for Peace through Tourism African Conference, which will be held in Zambia from May 15 to 20 under the theme “Meeting the challenges of climate change to tourism in Africa and the developing world”.
The aim of the conference is to showcase models of best practice in mitigating and addressing the anticipated impacts of climate change to tourism in Africa and the developing world.
In 2007, the UNWTO, jointly with the United Nations Environment Programme and World Meteorological Organisation convened the second International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism in Switzerland.
The conference set out a range of specific policies and actions to be taken by all stakeholders in the tourism sector to immediately begin implementation of a long-term carbon-neutral roadmap.
This year’s conference will seek to identify actual progress made since the 2007 conference with case studies of best practices from each of the developing regions of the world and from among governments, destinations and industry sectors.
Online Reporter