Story by Tichaona Kurewa
Government has expressed satisfaction with the performance of the tourism sector this year, amid optimism that 2025 will be bigger and better.
The United Nations Tourism Gastronomy and several MICE tourism gatherings held in Zimbabwe saw the tourism industry emerging as the major contributor to the GDP.
Speaking on the sidelines of a meet and greet domestic tourism campaign in Victoria Falls this Wednesday, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Honourable Barbra Rwodzi highlighted the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for Zimbabwe to host the first UN Tourism School in Africa as another success story.
“I an gladly say we have surpassed our expectations for 2024. We are very happy that the cabinet has accepted our policy and it means 2025 going forward there will be implementation and that implementation must have an impact on the numbers of arrivals as well as on investments and as well as the way the regulatory front, the legal front, the way we should run the business of tourism in the industry.
“Marketing is what we are envisaging for 2025. Talking about us, about the destination, the advantages, look at the peaceful environment in our country, and those that are coming to these MICE conferences are reporting back. And now they are coming as families because they’ve experienced how Zimbabwe is,” she said.
Zimbabwe has surpassed the US$five billion tourism industry target well ahead of 2025, confirming the speedy recovery and growth of the sector after taking a heavy battering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Increased investment in infrastructure, marketing campaigns, targeting key markets and the development of new tourism products have been attributed to the current growth of the tourism industry.
