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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) has engaged the Standards Association of Zimbabwe seeking ISO certification 9001/2015 quality management system that dovetails with the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy.

The strategy is also critical in the implementation of the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), which feeds to Vision 2030.

NDS1 is the Government’s five-year economic blue-print anchoring the economy between 2021 and 2025 focusing largely on stimulating productivity for the country to achieve an upper middle-income status by 2030.

ZTA acting chief executive officer Mr Givemore Chidzidzi said they have taken it upon themselves to embark on a journey that is a bit ambitious but attainable.

“We are going to go into the process of ISO certification for which we have appointed a project team, which project team has gone through some training with the Standards Association to train for the ISO 9001 2015 quality management system.

“ISO certification of the national tourism authority dovetails with the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy and is critical in the implementation of NDS1 as the nation focuses on Vision 2030,” he said.

In 2020, President Mnangagwa launched the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy to re-start the sector, whose contribution to the national economy has been heavily crippled by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The pandemic was first detected in China in December 2019 before spreading across all continents and economies across the globe have imposed travel restrictions and national lockdowns in line with the World Health Organisation guidelines.

Zimbabwe recorded its first Covid-19 case in March 2020.

Prior to Covid-19, the tourism and hospitality industry was one of the key foreign currency earners in Zimbabwe and employing thousands of people along the value chain.

However, as countries across the globe attempt to contain the viral infection, Zimbabwe has not been spared from the adverse repercussions of the viral infection.

Mr Chidzidzi said acquiring ISO 9001/2015 certification, in a way, was ZTA’s commitment to improving efficiency within the organisation and enhancing service delivery.

“We are looking at transforming this organisation into one that is going to deliver to our mandate to the satisfaction of our principals, to the satisfaction of the nation. So, l would like to congratulate the eight-member team that is going to lead the whole process who have excelled and undertaken the rigorous training that they went through and this process is not a very short process, it’s very involving.

“I need to appeal to all our members of staff including our stakeholders to also understand us as we go this journey and we are definitely promising that ZTA will never be the same again,” said Mr Chidzidzi.

Meanwhile, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has announced that the global tourist arrivals registered a four percent growth to 415 million last year while the tourism sector’s economic contribution improved to US$1,9 trillion from US$1,6 trillion in 2020.

International tourist arrivals across the world were 400 million in 2020.

UNWTO, however, has indicated that although the tourism sector’s performance was moderately improving, the achievements attained last year were still below the pre-Covid-19 era.