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The focus is on Bulawayo this week as the city hosts the Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo. The country’s biggest tourism and travel exposition will be held from Thursday to Saturday at the Zimbabwe International Exhibition Centre halls three and four. Held annually, the event is a marketing platform for the country’s tourism industry organised by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA). A total of 163 exhibitors, 28 being foreign, and 128 buyers have confirmed participation at the exposition. Foreign journalists are also attending to cover the show.

Countries represented include Uganda, South Africa, Germany, Malawi, Switzerland, Nigeria, France, Zambia, The Netherlands, Kenya, Botswana, Malaysia and Nigeria.

The expo comes as the government is creating an enabling environment for the tourism industry to get on a sustainable path for growth. Work is ongoing to refurbish existing and build new airports. Bulawayo has a new one which is already operational. The Buffalo Range Airport in the south-east lowveld is being attended to. The Victoria Falls International Airport, being refurbished at a cost of $150 million is likely to be commissioned at the end of next month. All these airports will boost their capacity to handle larger aircraft and travellers as well as making them aesthetically better.

In addition, the government has licensed a number of airlines to provide an air link between local destinations and the region and beyond. It is unfortunate, however that the national carrier is not involved that much in terms of flying visitors in and out of the country. Crippled by a $200 million debt, low morale among its key staff including pilots and challenges relating to its fleet, Air Zimbabwe is struggling to provide an efficient service.

Trade days will be Thursday and Friday while Saturday will be a public day as Sanganai/Hlanganani returns to its original venue, Bulawayo.

A number of events are scheduled over the three days of the fair. There will be a media dinner, official opening, an awards ceremony, golf tournament and an incentive tourism training workshop among other activities.

It is great that the show is taking place after financial challenges had threatened it. Only 11 days ago the government disbursed $500,000 to facilitate the staging of the event.

This was always coming because the government has not missed an opportunity to market the country not only as a safe tourism destination, but also as a destination for foreign and domestic investment. The delay by the ZTA to secure enough funding was causing needless uncertainly but the good thing is that Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo is here.

The tourism and hospitality industry is one of the biggest employers and generators of money for the country. It employs 300,000 direct and indirect employees and generated $856 million in 2013, up from US$749 million in 2012. It accounted for 10 percent of the gross domestic product in 2014 from two million tourists and was expected to contribute 15 percent of last year’s from 2,1 million visitors that were expected.

With such a huge contribution to the economy, there is no way the government was going to fail to support the staging of the industry’s biggest showpiece.

We look forward to a successful event. However, its real success will be measured by the amount of business that the industry will make thereafter.

We welcome our visitors with open arms and hearts. Zimbabweans are a welcoming people, who are peace-loving and want to conduct mutually beneficial business with the world. They say the people of Zimbabwe are the country’s biggest tourist attraction. On top of that, we have some of the world’s most irresistible attractions and facilities for the backpacker and the top-notch visitor. Victoria Falls is by far the globe’s best in its category. We have the Big Five. Zimbabwe’s climate is recognised as the world’s best.

The ZTA was over the past few days taking various exhibitors on guided tours of some of the country’s tourist attractions and hospitality establishments to enable them to experience the product. This will make their marketing of the destination more credible as it would be influenced by personal experience. The tour started on Wednesday last week with a visit to Chinhoyi Caves, Kariba, Bumi Hills, Caribbea Bay, Rhino Safari Camp, Victoria Falls, Hwange National Park, Somalisa Camp and Linkwasha.

Thirty eight of them visited Victoria Falls and Hwange over the weekend. After the expo, the visitors will sample Antelope Park in Gweru ending up in Harare.

Peter Keifer, representative of Reisen of Germany, who was part of the tour, said: “This is my first time in Zimbabwe. I’ve been selling Namibia, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania but after this experience I’m definitely adding Zimbabwe to my packages. I think I’m impressed by the facilities we visited and activities offered and I’m convinced these will suit my clients.”

Khomotso Kelsall of Makgale Tours based in South Africa, said:
“This is our second time to be at Sanganai/Hlanganani and we’ve been bringing clients to Victoria Falls. We’ve been to Kariba and we’ll now add it to our package because it’s an amazing place which our clients will love.”

Indeed, we look forward to our visitors taking that word back to their countries, that one has, with respect, not seen the world before they see the Victoria Falls. That one has not experienced anything before they experience Zimbabwean hospitality.