Source: Mupfumira heads Zim team to tourism fair – NewsDay Zimbabwe May 8, 2018
Tourism and Hospitality Industry minister, Prisca Mupfumira will lead a Zimbabwean delegation for the continent’s largest travel show, Africa Travel Indaba which opens in Durban, South Africa today.
BY BUSINESS REPORTER
It runs up to Thursday.
Zimbabwe, which has been participating at the fair since its inception 30 years ago, will be represented by 32 tourism operators.
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief executive, Karikoga Kaseke said the enthusiasm by local operators was encouraging.
“We have over the years lost substantial amounts of business from the South African market. We must take remedial action without further delay, we need to act swiftly. We are going to South Africa to regain the market share we lost,” he said.
“The level of participation of the tourism players from Zimbabwe is very encouraging and I know Zimbabwe is going to make a huge impact at the Africa’s Travel Indaba this year. I am very happy that the smaller operators are now also seeing that marketing their products at these big travel shows will assist their businesses to grow.”
South Africa is the largest tourist source market for Zimbabwe, contributing 30% of total arrivals in 2017. Arrivals from South Africa reached 1,368 million in 2010 from 912 244 in 2009, but declined to 716 234 tourist in 2017.
Zimbabwe will also launch the Visit Zimbabwe campaign on the sidelines of the travel show to lure tourists. Kaseke last year said Zimbabwe will in 2018 embark on Visit Zimbabwe campaigns in source markets to ramp up arrivals.
COMMENTS