By Zivanai Dhewa
The Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Mrs Monica Mutsvangwa announced after a Cabinet briefing that Zimbabwe has been ranked third best tourist destination in the world for 2019.
“Zimbabwe exhibited at the World Travel Market in the United Kingdom (UK), there was an award ceremony to recognise the top 10 destinations to visit in 2019….this followed a poll which was completed in October 2018 by Lonely Planet which released their pics for the best travel destinations in 2019, giving Sri Lanka, Germany and Zimbabwe top ratings based on the nominations of Editors, Researchers, Locals and Influencers,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
Speaking at the same Cabinet press briefing, the Minister of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality, Priscah Mupfumira, added that Government is taking steps to improve the tourism sector in order to maintain this status.
“We are preparing ourselves for the influx, already the numbers have shown tourist arrivals have drastically increased. We are working together with our industry to increase hotel facilities in our tourist resorts,” she said.
Addressing the issues of destination connectivity, Minister Mupfumira said, “With support from our African colleagues, we have Kenyan Airways coming into Victoria Falls, Ethopian airways, South African Airways, British Airways via ComAir. We are anticipating two other airlines coming into Victoria Falls.”
“We are also in the process of revamping and extending our own main International Airport because we know we are going to be getting more airlines into Zimbabwe,” she added.
“We have also started reviewing Visa regimes so that it is user friendly and competitive to people with the same source market, that is people in the region and beyond,” added Minister Mupfumira.
Amongst other measures that the government is embarking on in order to maintain the award winning tourist destination status are its preparation of the facilitation of tourist arrivals, putting in place people to receive them, a review of the pricing structure as it has been noted that the hotels are not competitive in their pricing systems.
The Ministry has, thus formed a Tourist Facilitation Committee which comprises of all major stakeholders in the tourism industry, the airlines, hotel owners, the immigration and the police.
