Chronicle Editor
Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) intends to engage sports associations and tourism players in a bid to promote synergies that will be key in attaining the full benefits of sport tourism in the country.
Sport tourism is a fairly new concept in Africa but is fast becoming a sought after socioeconomic activity as people travel to watch various sporting disciplines around the world.
Sports events that have boosted tourism globally include the football World Cup, Olympics and other international competitions.
Having noted the potential of sports in the promotion of tourism, ZTA has been researching on how best it can sell the idea to all sport codes.
ZTA head of corporate affairs Godfrey Koti said there is a need for a serious approach to sport tourism.
“The sport tourism concept is now a big product across the globe. We believe that there is a massive opportunity for collaboration with sport to further reach masses. This will allow us to position Zimbabwe as a must visit destination for both local and international tourists.
“The state of sport tourism right now is not very desirable. It would be great if we had it managed differently from what it is right now. The onus is on us the tourism sector to sit down with the sporting sector and converge on issues that assist us to both promote tourism and sport,” said Koti.
“We have not come together to talk about sport tourism honestly. We are encouraging sports associations to come and engage with us because they know their different selling points. If it’s a water polo team in Kariba they know the selling point there.
“We must come together and start working hard and put in the pillars that will assist us in developing. I know in the NDS1 there is talk on sport tourism but it’s now up to us to put it into action and assist the Government to achieve the economic goals that have been set,” he added.
He went on to say they were eager to work with sports associations.
“We are viewing sport tourism as a very critical part of tourism. In a normal setup we would assist an organisation to go and bid for a conference to come and host it in Zimbabwe, we will assist with that.
“It’s the same with sports associations; we help them secure capacitation programmes.
“If it’s a football team, what is that which can make Highlanders an institution that is attractive to help us propagate the sports tourism narrative. We have to start there.
“It’s critical for us to engage both in sports and tourism. We have seen it happening with cricket where we have decided to work together and do programmes that assist us to both market tourism and develop cricket further and propel the game to different segments of the market from a promotional perspective.” – @innocentskizoe
Online Reporter