The Sunday News
Roberta Katunga Senior Business Reporter
THE Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry has engaged the services of the Japan International Co-operation Agency and Asian Development Bank to formulate a strategy for Community Based Tourism (CBT) in the country. Speaking on the sidelines of International Air Transport Association (IATA) Day held in Victoria Falls on Thursday, Deputy Minister Annastacia Ndlovu said formulation of the CBT strategy was already underway with the visits to the country’s 10 provinces having been conducted.
Deputy Minister Ndlovu said the Government’s vision was to see tourism rich areas benefit from the resources around them. “We are encouraging communities to come up with cultural villages. This product diversification is necessary as some source markets, when they visit, want to experience the everyday lives of the people,” she said.
Speaking on the partnership with JICA, Deputy Minister Ndlovu said the organisation that promotes cultural relationships was assisting the ministry with support in terms of financial and technical resources while the ADB was funding projects especially those that promote domestic tourism.
“We cannot say at the moment how much ADB is providing us with but we work closely with them as a ministry not only on CBT but other projects that especially promote domestic tourism,” said Deputy Minister Ndlovu.
On investments into the tourism sector, Deputy Minister Ndlovu said as people were commemorating IATA Day, it was apparent that the new Victoria Falls International Airport would be a game change in the sector as even before commissioning, they had begun to see an increase in traffic into the destination.
She said it was the Government’s hope that by the time the airport is commissioned, there would be an increase in tourism traffic.
“The new airport ensures that we are now able to receive aircrafts of any size and at any time. Victoria Falls has been given a special economic zone status under the President’s 10 Point Plan so we are looking forward to being able to attract investment into the town which will see a lot of infrastructure development taking place to prepare it to be able to handle the anticipated number of tourists,” she said.
IATA Day which was held under the theme “The value and benefit of intra-Africa connectivity” was attended by Government officials who included Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo, Air Zimbabwe acting chief executive officer Mr Edmund Makona, Civil Aviation of Zimbabwe chief executive officer Mr David Chawota as well as top ranking officials from IATA.
