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Oliver Kazunga Business Senior Reporter
THE recent terrorism attack in Tunisia confirms that Zimbabwe is a safe tourist destination despite the negative reports western countries have peddled against the country, analysts have said.

Of late, some western countries mainly the United States and Britain have declared that Zimbabwe is an unsafe tourist destination.

This follows the Land Reform Programme the government embarked on in 2000 which saw the country being slapped with economic sanctions.

According to media reports, last Friday tourists crowded into the airport at Hammamet near the coastal city of Sousse where a young man shot dead 39 people, mostly tourists.

A lecturer at the Midlands State University professor Nhamo Mhiripiri said Zimbabwe needs not be told that it is a peaceful and safe tourist destination.

“Do we need the West to tell us our country is a safe or unsafe tourist destination? We know we’re at peace, let’s just be happy with what we have,” he said.

Another lecturer at the National University of Science Lawson Hikwa said Zimbabwe was a safe tourist destination despite the economic and political crisis the country suffered in the past.

“I wouldn’t really want to compare the two countries because they are far apart in different regions though on the same continent,” he said.

Due to the negative publicity the country has had, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority has in recent years embarked on a number of perception management programmes aimed at rebuilding the image of the country and lure tourists.

An economic commentator, Peter Mhaka said Zimbabwe was a peaceful country where security was guaranteed.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest revenue earners.

In 2014, according to the World Tourism and Travel Council, Zimbabwe’s tourism sector contributed 4,4 percent to the national Gross Domestic Product.

Zimbabwe’s tourist arrivals went up 2,6 percent in 2014 to 1,880,028 compared to the previous year, buoyed by arrivals from Africa, Europe and America, according to latest figures obtained from ZTA.

At its peak, tourist arrivals in the country reached more than two million before the economic sanctions.