Story by Memory Chamisa
GOVERNMENT has renewed its drive to attract diaspora investment into Zimbabwe’s tourism sector, urging Zimbabweans living abroad to channel remittances into long-term business ventures that support economic growth and job creation.
Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Honourable Barbara Rwodzi, is leading the Zimbabwe Diaspora Tourism Investment Forum in the United States, where she has engaged Zimbabweans in Dallas, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia on investment opportunities across the sector.
Honourable Rwodzi called on the diaspora to convert remittances into productive investments, particularly in tourism, which she described as a high-impact sector with significant potential to create employment, stimulate enterprise development and drive sustainable economic growth.
She said while remittances remain a vital source of support for Zimbabwe’s economy, greater investment in tourism enterprises, hospitality infrastructure and destination development would unlock opportunities throughout the tourism value chain.
The Minister noted that Zimbabweans based in the United States contribute about 12 percent of the country’s remittance inflows, underscoring the diaspora’s strategic role in national development. She added that diaspora remittances have remained a key pillar of economic resilience over the past three years.
Honourable Rwodzi said the tourism sector continues to benefit from improved air connectivity and growing opportunities in cultural and heritage tourism, gastronomy, sports tourism, religious tourism, rural tourism, and the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) market.
Reaffirming the Zimbabwe is Open for Business policy, she encouraged Zimbabweans abroad to seize investment opportunities in the tourism sector.
Representatives from the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA), the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Mosi-Oa-Tunya Development Company and the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority also made presentations highlighting investment opportunities across Zimbabwe’s tourism industry.
