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Senior Business Reporter

IN a bid to promote domestic tourism, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) is today engaging students at the University of Zimbabwe focusing on innovation challenges, and career guidance.

The national tourism body is targeting students sitting for a cross-section of degree programs and courses that include tourism and hospitality, marketing, archaeology, and their lecturers.

On a broader front, the tourism sector has embarked on an aggressive domestic tourism marketing drive following the launch of the Zibo campaign in 2020, which has helped improve domestic travel.

The positive recovery is being enhanced by improved accessibility of tourism products and destination route connectivity in terms of domestic and international transportation.

ZTA Head Corporate Affairs Chief Godfrey Kati said interaction with tertiary students forms part of ZTA’s outreach programs under the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy.

“The primary aim of the presentations is to create awareness amongst students about tourist attractions within Zimbabwe. We have to catch them young and hopefully inculcate a culture of travel and hopefully this translates to an increased interest in domestic tourism,” he said in a statement.

The Covid-19 pandemic adversely affected the tourism industry in the country, resulting in the halting of all international travel.

This left a huge void that, from a strategic point of view, could only be filled by focusing domestic tourism as well as promoting local products, said Mr Koti.

“The need to educate students on the state of domestic tourism is critical in creating a sense of ownership and pride in being a citizen of this country which is endowed with unique destinations, and flora and fauna that are unmatched in the world,”.

“Targeting institutions of higher learning aims at grooming a pool of tourism ambassadors and adventurers and explorers in their particular academic pursuits. This will also lead to arming them with career opportunities that are off the beaten track but will create a large pool for the tourism industry to tap into,”

Therefore, involving students at such a nascent stage in their studies also serves to induct them into the tourism economy that aims to inject 5 billion into the larger Zimbabwean economy by 2030, he said.