Bangkok--20 Apr--eTurbonews
A visiting delegation of French opinion leaders has pledged to work with the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority to transform perceptions about Zimbabwe in an effort to boost tourism.
The eight-member delegation from various French tourism players made the pledge during a meeting with the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Cde Francis Nhema last week. Mr. Michel Lo, a tourism consultant, leading the delegation, said the group would assist with strategies to promote Zimbabwe as an attractive and world class tourist destination. "We are here not as tourists but to try to have a strategy of bringing tourists to Zimbabwe and help local tour operators sell their products in France," Mr. Lo said.
He described Zimbabwe as Africa's paradise and said many people wanted to visit the Southern African country but had no information about it. He stressed that there was need for Zimbabwe to come up with attractive and affordable holiday packages to woo tourists. "If the country properly packages its tourist attractions many tourists would visit this country. Many French people do not have a bad opinion of Zimbabwe but the problem is that they don't know about Zimbabwe," he said.
Cde Nhema said Zimbabwe had now switched from selective tourism to mass tourism following the souring of relations with Britain. "We have decided to expand our tourism following the bad publicity by CNN and Sky News. "The channels have portrayed Zimbabwe in the way they do for their own political benefit," he said. Cde Nhema said Zimbabwe did not have resources to counter the negative publicity and would need such people as the French to assist them in reflecting the true Zimbabwean situation. He also said traditionally Zimbabwe's tourism was designed to accommodate only British tourists but had started opening up to other players across the world.
"There had been no efforts to market Zimbabwe outside the traditional markets. The country was assured of tourists coming but this changed in the early 1990s," he said. The delegation, which arrived in Zimbabwe on Good Friday, is expected to tour prime resort centers. Zimbabwe has been subjected to bad publicity as a result of the land reform program and this has impacted negatively on the country's tourism sector. As a way of reviving the industry, ZTA is bringing in foreign delegates to have first hand information on Zimbabwe. The ZTA is expected to bring more delegations in the next 18 months. The visit by the French delegation also comes after other delegations from Malaysia, China and Indonesia toured Zimbabwe on similar familiarization tours.