ZTA sets up Chinese website

via ZTA sets up Chinese website SundayNews by Gabriel Masvora Sunday, 13 October 2013

THE Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) has set up a website in Chinese to tap into the ever-growing market of tourists from the Asian nation as the country continues to forge ahead with an aggressive marketing strategy to promote the sector.

ZTA chief operating officer Mr Givemore Chidzidzi told journalists during the Sanganai/Hlanganani World Travel and Tourism Africa fair in Harare last week that this was part of various marketing strategies that were meant to capture the Chinese market which has over the years grown to become one of the biggest source markets for the country.

“We have various marketing campaigns we are running in China but we recently opened a website in Chinese so that we can adequately tell our story to the source market in the language they understand,” he said.

Mr Chidzidzi said ZTA has been present in China for the past six years and a lot of groundwork has been done to ensure more tourists from the Asian country visit Zimbabwe.

“We also work through our embassy in the country and one of their main mandates is to ensure that they prioritise promoting Zimbabwe to the Chinese market.”

China has grown to become one of the leading source markets for Zimbabwe after the Government adopted the Look East Policy.

The country was also one of those that brought the largest number of buyers and journalists to this year’s expo with a delegation of more than 70.

Mr Chidzidzi said domestically, his organisation would continue to play a leading role in promoting centres and major activities across the country that seek to promote tourism.

He said ZTA had partnered with the Kariba Tourism Industry to promote the Nyami Nyami festival which will be held in June next year. “Kariba is one of best kept secrets and by promoting the area we are promoting one of best tourist areas in the country. ZTA will now play a major part in the promotion and organisation of the event.”

Mr Chidzidzi said the involvement of ZTA in the organisation of the Nyami Nyami festival was part of its new strategy to focus on business tourism which was one of the main focus for this year’s event.