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Herald Reporter
The Zimbabwe Tourism (ZTA) has hosted a series of virtual tours targeting key source markets as part of efforts to deepen destination marketing.
On Monday, the ZTA and RIDA International Travel Solutions, jointly hosted a live virtual tour of Victoria Falls and Harare.
The tour was attended by over 400 travel agents from the South East Asian region, one of the fastest growing travel markets for destination Zimbabwe prior to the outbreak of the devastating Covid-19 pandemic.
In that region, China alone sent out nearly 155 million tourists to different destinations in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic slowed business.
ZTA acting chief executive, Mr Givemore Chidzidzi, started with a presentation on what destination Zimbabwe has to offer.
The virtual audience was then given a front row seat to experience a live tour of the majestic Victoria Falls, as well as Harare’s Chiremba Balancing Rocks, the Mbuya Nehanda Statue and the city centre.
“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, interaction with the outside world has been limited, hence the need for us to employ innovative and disruptive ways of communication,” said Mr Chidzidzi.
“We decided to engage RIDA International Travel Solutions to assist us to host virtual tours to market Zimbabwe to various markets across the globe. We needed a team that had an understanding of the market as well as the needs of agents and potential tourists.
“Our National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy underscores the need to maximise the use of digital marketing platforms such as webinars, social media, digital televisions, microblogs and vlogs, among others.
“It is against this backdrop that we decided to take the Visit Zimbabwe Campaign to the world using these platforms.”
Mr Chidzidzi said an aggressive digital marketing campaign was in motion to improve destination visibility locally, regionally and internationally.
Online Reporter