The Sunday News
THE Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) has ventured into sport tourism as part of a broader move to market and re-brand the country’s tourism brand.
Basically, sport tourism refers to international trips specifically taken to watch sporting events.
Speaking at the Zimbabwe Rugby Legends vs South Africa Legends match press conference on Friday ZTA chief executive officer Karikonga Kaseke said ZTA has partnered with CANSAF to use the popular rugby tournament to promote the country as a safe destination.
“We are going to use the match to market the country and rebuild its image . . . our target is to raise the global community’s positive perception of Zimbabwe to over 70 percent by year-end through different marketing strategies which are going to be applied this year.
“The match is expected to draw tourists from South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia,” said Kaseke.
The match is going to be played on March 28 in Victoria Falls and this will be part of the Event Tourism programme the country has embarked on in recent times.
The ZTA boss added that the event will include various activities in Victoria Falls such as conducting a coaching clinic for children from local schools. “The event will market our country and expose it as a safe destination since the event will be covered by South African sports channel SuperSport, which has a dedicated rugby channel. And this will ensure extensive coverage of the whole event ,” he said.
He added that all stakeholders in the tourism sector have shown support of the event and the event will be a generation of more sport tourism events to market the country. One of Zimbabwe’s leading tourism companies, Africa Albida Tourism, is part of the tournament. — Sponsors-BH24
