The Sunday News
ACCORDING to experts, “exhibiting at trade shows offers several benefits to your business. Unlike other marketing activities, exhibitions and trade shows offer a wide platform for brands to showcase their products, services and communicate their key message to a more receptive audience. Exhibition participation can help you meet with customers who are pro-actively looking for a deal, which will result in you being able to collect more leads.”
Furthermore, “exhibitions are usually targeted at business and people concerned about a particular industry and welcome a diverse range of professionals. Participating in an exhibition will enable you to market your brand to a broader crowd and make them aware of your product and service. According to the type of industry, exhibitors can carry out shows and gain business or general feedback about their offering before they release it to the general public. You get a reliable pool of interested customers that you can reach out to after the show.”
Sanganai/Hlanganani
With Bulawayo set to host the Sanganai/Hlanganani Tourism expo next month, it is important for local industry players to take advantage of the event to market themselves and their products. It is also important that local businesses also prepare for business opportunities that might arise, when thousands of local and foreign tourism players descend on the city.
The city is home to the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, which is always a crowd puller, and a high turnout is also expected for the tourism expo, a move that will rejuvenate local businesses.
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) last week said preparations for the Expo have engaged into high gear with 100 buyers and 250 exhibitors from regional and international markets, registering to be part of the premier business exchange platform. The Expo, taking place at the Zimbabwe International Exhibition Centre in Bulawayo from 13 to 15 October, will be the first in-person meeting since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The authority’s spokesperson Mr Godfrey Koti said: “We are ready to welcome all our partners from across Africa and beyond to register to attend Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo to #MeetInZim, #VisitZimbabwe and indulge with international hosted buyers and media from key source markets on yet another physical business-to-business (B2B) event.”
The Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ), President Mr Farai Chimba encouraged businesses to promote Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism related activities. He urged businesses to showcase their tourism products and services on the industry’s biggest stage while also acquiring knowledge about different source markets.
“We are super excited of the return of the Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo in Bulawayo, we look forward to the tourism flagship expo giving us the opportunity to showcase the best of warm hospitality and products,” said Mr Chimba.
