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Givemore Chidzidzi

Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) has partnered with the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) company to make the A’sambeni Africa Travel and Tourism Fair a Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (Mice) tourism showcase for Southern Africa, an official has said.
ZTA chief operations officer Givemore Chidzidzi told Business Chronicle that the A’sambeni Travel and Tourism Fair will this year change focus to be a full-scale regional exhibition which accommodates large and small operators dealing with business travel.

A’sambeni will run concurrently with ZITF from May 6 to 10 this year.
“A’sambeni has always been held in Bulawayo every year during ZITF. It is a show within a show. However, this year we are refocusing and hosting it in a different way to include Mice. Since ZITF is a combination of business and commerce, we want players dealing in Mice to attract a lot of business to the businesses showcasing at ZITF,” he said.

Chidzidzi said the goal was to push Zimbabwe as a Mice destination.
This will enable Sanganai/Hlanganani tourism fair to focus on tourism in general while A’sambeni will focus on Mice.
“A’sambeni should be different from Sanganai/ Hlanganani. This should focus more on attracting business to travel to destinations for meetings and conferences, for example, and this is the time for the local players with facilities to hold such meetings to come and showcase to the business community, to companies that will be exhibiting,” said Chidzidzi.

The national exhibitors at A’sambeni will not only showcase attractions in their own countries, but also provide information on the inter-country routing possibilities for a huge variety of travel customers.