Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Zimbabwe Safe for Tourists, Says Official

Zim safe for tourists, says Fundira

January 7, 2014

THE successful holding of the Constitutional referendum and harmonised elections last year played a major part in endorsing Zimbabwe as a safe tourist destination, with bookings surpassing targets by more than 10 percent, an industry official said on Monday.

Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe president Mr Emmanuel Fundira said the industry recorded an increase in business last year despite challenges stemming from the negative media publicity the country had been receiving over the years.

“To a large extent 2013 was better than expected in the sense that it was a year aggregated by a number of national issues one being the national referendum at the beginning of the year and the national elections on July 31,” he said.

“Fortunately, when we successfully handled the referendum there was a clear indication that there was peace and stability and that environment helped a lot in terms of motivating perception which was more positive than before. So by the time we came to the harmonised elections we did not experience any cancellations at all.

“What we did was to experience additional business coming in because the confidence level had improved from the period when we had the referendum.”

Mr Fundira said this year, safari operators would be employing various strategies to boost business.

“For 2014, I think we already sent the correct signals to the market that we are able to conduct elections, that we are able to host international events like the United Nations World Tourism Organisation successfully, so we are now competing at par with other countries in the region and beyond in terms of regaining our position as a top notch tourism destination.”

The tourism industry is targeting to grow its contribution to GDP to 15 percent by 2015, on the basis of 3,2 million arrivals and US$5 billion in earnings.

— New Ziana.

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