The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) Company says it has temporarily shelved plans to construct its proposed 300 bed hotel and conventional centre as it could not readily find a willing investor to partner in the project.
ZITF Company chairman Mr Bekithemba Nkomo said the construction of the hotel was still under consideration but funding remains a challenge.
“The idea of constructing a hotel is still on the cards but it’s difficult for us to attract tenders as investors appear to be skeptical about the prevailing economic environment but it still remains a priority. We need investors to go in with us because on our own as ZITF we won’t have funding to go into such a project,” he said.
Mr Nkomo said although the company was given the green light by the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) to construct the infrastructure on a piece of land close to the Bulawayo Golf Club nothing has been done with regards to coming up with designs of the proposed hospitality facility.
He however, acknowledged that the construction of the hotel was likely to increase the company’s income generating initiatives during and after the exhibition period.
ZITF obtains its revenue through selling exhibition space and venue hiring.
As part of its efforts to assist in the provision of accommodation for its foreign exhibitors, the company partnered Ecological Safaris to take care of this service as well as offering customised packages and guided tours.
During the Trade Fair scores of exhibitors and visitors usually find it difficult to find accommodation as hotels and lodges run out of rooms. Consequently, private landlords have taken advantage of these accommodation challenges during exhibitions to charge high rents to desperate visitors.
Meanwhile, three new countries are expected to exhibit at this year’s Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF).
The trade showcase will run from April 21 to 25, under the theme, “Stimulating trade…seizing opportunities to accelerate growth.”
Mr Nkomo said there have been a lot of inquiries from a number of countries that are showing interest to exhibit at the trade showcase for the first time.
He however, could not be drawn to divulge the prospective new entrants.
“We have received quite a lot of inquiries from a number of new comers and we are looking forward to them to confirm their participation.
“Of the new comers I can say we have received a fair bit of interest from African and European countries,” Mr Nkomo said.
Countries that have confirmed participation include Germany, India, Malawi, Mozambique, Pakistan, Poland and South Africa.
“I can say three or four new comers have shown keen interest with a lot of them giving their interest through liaising with those that have been at the ZITF before. So there is quite a positive response and this is really interesting,” Mr Nkomo said.
Last year, 19 countries, including the United States which had not set foot at ZITF for 10 years, and close to 400 firms participated.
China was the biggest exhibitor at the 2014 fair occupying more than 1 000m2 up from 600m2 in 2013.
The ZITF Company is encouraging exhibitors to confirm their bookings and take advantage of the early booking rates which expire on 31 March.
About 80 percent of the exhibition space has been taken for this year’s fair.
The other events that would run concurrently with the exhibition are an international business conference which will focus on how stimulating exports will provide opportunities to propel growth under the country’s blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.
A’Sambeni Africa Business Tourism Expo, for the meetings, incentives, conference and events tourism sector; Scholastica, for the education, careers and training sectors; Pakprint, for the printing and packaging sectors and Ultim8 Home, for home improvement and renovation. All these will run parallel to ZITF.
The other perennial event will be the Bulawayo Agricultural Show.
