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Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE’s tourism re-engagement efforts received a major boost yesterday after the United Arab Emirates pledged unconditional support to Government through the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), the country’s lead arm in the tourism business.

Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Prisca Mupfumira, who is the UAE for the World Government Summit, met senior tourism officials from Dubai and the parties held fruitful business talks in the morning.

“The last day of the 7th World Government Summit in Dubai has been a progressive one for the country’s tourism industry. This follows Minister Mupfumira’s successful engagement with the Dubai tourism director general, Mr Helal Almari, this morning (yesterday),” said the Ministry in a media update.

Dubai is a city and emirate in the UAE known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and lively leisure scenes.

The two parties agreed on areas of co-operation and support that include knowledge exchange, capacity building and skills development in the areas of marketing and destination management, said the Ministry.

“The meeting also discussed the possibility of facilitation of numerous benchmarking exercise and exposure visits,” it said.

“There was also a discussion on the possibility of Dubai participating and exhibiting at Zimbabwe’s tourism business expo, Sanganai/Hlanganani.”

On Monday, the Minister and her team also engaged the diaspora community living in Dubai and urged them to market destination Zimbabwe.

Through the ZTA, Zimbabwe will aggressively facilitate linkages between the Zimbabwean and Dubai tourism private sectors. The summit, which kicked off on Sunday, saw more than 4 000 participants from 140 countries attending.

Heads of State, Ministers and Government officials have converged on the platform to discuss the world’s future at the three-day event. Zimbabwe took part in the meeting as part of the Minister’s international re-engagement efforts aimed at reaching out to Zimbabweans living in the diaspora to join hands in marketing the country as a favourable tourism destination.

Minister Mupfumira and senior Ministry staff also met Zimbabweans resident in Abu Dhabi, Doha and Kuwait in an effort to attract more arrivals to various tourism sites across the country.

In her address during a reception, Minister Mupfumira said diaspora involvement in the destination Zimbabwe marketing campaign was critical to the Government’s strategy.

“There is no doubt that the Zimbabwean diaspora are absolutely key to achieving tourism development and will continue to play a critical role in our efforts to revive our economy. Government is cognisant of the role that its people in the diaspora can play in the economy,” she said.

“From a tourism point of view, all people in the diaspora, we look at you as our brand ambassadors. We expect you to work very closely with us and spread the good news about your country, ‘destination Zimbabwe’.”

Zimbabwe boasts a range of attractive destinations with Unesco World Heritage sites that include the Great Zimbabwe Monuments, Matobo Hills National Park, Khami Ruins, the great Mana Pools and the majestic Victoria Falls to mention but just a few.

The country is also very peaceful with the friendliest people one can ever find in Africa if not globally.