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School heads from the Midlands Province are shown a sculpture of the Nyaminyami River god on display at the BaTonga Museum in Binga recently

Arnold Mutemi recently in Binga
TOURISM players in Binga are targeting schools to boost tourist arrivals in the district, which is overshadowed by traditional places of interest such as Victoria Falls, Kariba and Great Zimbabwe. An official of the Binga Tourism and Publicity Association, Wilbert Makonese, said they wanted schools to include Binga when they organise tours for their pupils.

“The thrust of this programme is to link with schools and remove the tradition of just going to Victoria Falls. We want to expose them to other cultures,” he said.

Makonese said despite Binga having many historical sites such as the Pupu Caves where the last Ndebele King Lobengula was  believed to have been buried, as well as the hot springs and Kariba Dam, the tourist potential of the district was not recognised, especially by educational institutions.

Hundreds of schools across the country each year organise busloads of pupils to visit tourist attractions, providing thousands of dollars to the tourism sector. But none are visiting Binga.

Makonese said it was disappointing that schools shunned Binga, preferring instead to focus on the more popular sites.

He said the project to bring schools to Binga would boost domestic tourism.
Makonese said ideally, domestic tourists should make up to 80 percent of visitors to local places of interests.

He said the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority should be promoting domestic tourism before going outside the country to sell the tourism product abroad.

As part of the project to promote local tourism, the Binga Tourism and Publicity Association organised a trip for school heads from the Midlands Province under the auspices of the National Association of Primary Heads to visit places of interest in Binga.

Makonese said in the long run, they wanted to form partnerships with urban schools so that they assisted in the development of schools in Binga.

Naph Midlands chairman Edwell Maphosa said the visit had been an eye opener and     they would impress on schools to consider putting Binga on the itinerary of their school tours.

He said it was the first time most of the heads had been to Binga and they were impressed by the tourism potential of the district.
Maphosa said although other places in the country had hot springs such as those in Manicaland, they were particularly fascinated by the Binga hot springs.

He said the trip had removed misconceptions they had about Binga, such as it being a backward place, and what they thought about the BaTonga people.