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Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) Company says its exhibition at the World Travel Market-Travel Trade Show in London three weeks ago gave it an opportunity to market its tourism products including that of the country as well.
In an interview after a Press conference on Thursday, ZITF Company general manager Mrs Nomathemba Ndlovu said the internationally acclaimed travel expo gave them an opportunity to effectively market the country’s tourism products to the outside world.
ZITF exhibited at the three-day leading global event for the travel industry under the banner of Zimbabwe Tourism Authority.
“We were exhibiting our exhibition centre, events and conferencing facilities. For us it was an opportunity to meet with potential exhibitors, potential buyers for our tourism products but also to look for opportunities in marketing our exhibition centre and conference facilities, attracting more events into the country particularly into the City of Bulawayo,” said Mrs Ndlovu.
The ZITF Company is also looking forward to improve its exhibitions through the experience it gained at the World Travel Market-Travel Trade Show.
“We also used it (World Travel Market-Travel Trade Show) as an opportunity for us to benchmark the exhibition by looking at what they are doing in terms of their facilities, technology that they are using for their registration and gate access controls.
“We also looked at what exhibitors are doing because it informs us what we should train our exhibitors for their ZITF participation. The information we got and the pictures we took there are going to form part of our materials that we will use when we train them . . . ,” Mrs Ndlovu said.
The ZITF Company general manager said most visitors at the World Travel Market-Travel Trade Show expressed interest in Zimbabwe as a tourist destination.
“For us it was a very fruitful exercise to continue to network with the players that are likely to have interest in our market and I must say our stand was very busy. There were other tour operators who were there that were also marketing their products and services, mostly from Victoria Falls including major hotel groups . . . the interest was there in Zimbabwe as a destination,” said Mrs Ndlovu.
Meanwhile, the ZITF Company has intensified its marketing campaign for the hosting of the 58th edition of the country’s premier trade showcase, the ZITF 2017. The exhibition would be held from 25 to 29 April under the theme: “Harnessing Linkages for Industrial Development”.
Mrs Ndlovu said her company would continue with its effort to lure countries that have not been exhibiting at the showcase for some time including new entrants.
“We always maintain relations with countries that haven’t exhibited before and those that used to exhibit and no longer exhibit because even if they don’t come to ZITF per se there is still an opportunity for business to business interaction happening at company level.
“We still continue to do that off the exhibition floor. So for us we still continue to maintain relations and we know eventually they will come on board, we have seen other countries coming on board slowly, the United States (of America) were here, Russians were here after a long time so it is bearing fruit,” she said.
Mrs Ndlovu said their international agents were working tirelessly to lure foreign companies to come and exhibit at next year’s showcase.
“International agents are on the ground and they tell us better what participation is likely to come forward and at the moment they are saying they do have a pool of exhibitors that are interested. They haven’t as yet told us the square metres they require. For that they need a little bit of time because usually they bring a pool of exhibitors or will have a stand, which represent a number of exhibitors so we will have a better update next year,” she said.
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