PICTURE: A combined traditional dance act of Chiaraidze Muchongoyo Group of Chipinge Prison and Gaza High School of Chipinge during Ndau Festival of the Arts held at Bangira Village in Chikore, Chipinge.
TOURISM has been regarded as one of the recognisable contributor to the economy of Zimbabwe. According to the 2015 United Nations World Tourism Authority (UNWTO) report which gave an analysis of the country’s tourism in 2014, the sector contributed US$1.44 billion which is 10.4% of the Zimbabwe’s Gross Domestic Product.
The report says that tourism generated 181,000 jobs directly which is 3.1% of total employment and expected a 2.0% growth in 2015 to 184,500 jobs which is 3.16% of total employment.
UNWTO report for 2016 shall be availed soon and we shall see if the 2015 forecast was achieved. Also, the country is aiming at the US$5 billion mark by the year 2020.
As we wait for the 2015 results, let us look at what made headlines in tourism during the same year.
Awards
Mid-year, Zimbabwe’s tourism sector scooped two prestigious international accolades.
In June, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority was announced as the winner of Destination Marketing of the 2015 Routes Destination Marketing Award. The Destination awards are for the aviation based companies that operate in the Middle East and Africa.
In July Zimbabwe won the African Rising Star Country Branding Award from a Spanish-based Bloom Consulting, a strategy consulting company that specialises in national branding. The award was given after Zimbabwe had improved in tourism growth rate and had moved five places up from position 18 to 13 of the 37 African countries evaluated during the period 2008-2013.
A country was measured on four variables, that is, economic performance (financial gain from international visitors based on receipts from UNWTO), digital demand (total online research volumes for tourism related activities and attractions), country branding strategy (culture, leisure, outdoors, niche markets and target markets) and online performance (the more the brand appeals on the web and on social media).
Cultural festivals
About 30 international, regional and local cultural festivals took place in the country. International acclaimed festivals in the like of Harare International Festival of the Arts, Harare International Carnival and Jameson Victoria Falls Carnival saw cultural artistes, groups and consumers from across the globe descending into the country as cultural tourists.
Regionally, cultural artistes, groups and policy makers from South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique and Zimbabwe convened for The Great Limpopo Cultural Festival that took place in Chiredzi in August.
On local galas, Manicaland province had its fair share of festivals in October as Chipinge managed to hold Ndau Festival of the Arts at Bangira village in Chikore communal land and Buhera holding Matendera Festival at Matendera Ruins in Chief Nyashanu’s land. The two galas gave cultural tourists an opportunity to experience undiluted African culture.
Conferences
Tourism and Hospitality Industry minister Eng Walter Mzembi was re-elected by African countries in September as Chairman of the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organisation) Regional Commission for Africa. UNWTO is held every 2 years as a regulatory meeting for tourism ministers and high level private tourism representatives till the forthcoming UNWTO meeting to be held in China in 2017.
The re-election of minister Mzembi is a clear sign that Africa’s fifty four countries had confidence in how Zimbabwe is driving its tourism sector.
In December, Zimbabwe saw a boost in international arrivals in the name of International Convention on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA). An estimated 4500 ICASA delegates descended on Harare for the convention which our tourism minister regards a success since hotels and lodges were fully booked in Harare before and during the conference.
Cecil the lion
A lot of international media hype followed news of the killing of one of the country’s major tourist attractions to Hwange National Park, Cecil the lion.
Cecil, which had been tracked by satellite under Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) research programme, was killed outside the national park after being lured out of the park using a dead animal as bait. The hunter, an American based dentist, Walter Palmer shot the feline using a bow and arrow but the cat didn’t die immediately. It endured pain for the next forty hours when it was finally brought down using a rifle.
Palmer was cleared of wrongdoing by the law of Zimbabwe in October because he didn’t break any hunting laws in the country. The Cecil lion enhanced the debate whether sport hunting should be stopped or should continue.