By Derick Tsimba

Zimbabwe has attended the first ever UNWTO Ministerial meeting on Air Transport and Tourism in Africa being held in Cape Verde from 27 to 29 March 2019.

On its social media platform, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) said transport and tourism depended on each other as essential engines of trade and economic growth.

“Air transport and tourism depend on each other heavily and are essential engines of trade and economic growth for both developing and developed countries. We are here to find ways of balancing interests of airlines and the optimum development of the tourism industries,” said ZTA.

Whilst in Cape Verde, Minister of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Prisca Mupfumira said the meeting was for facilitating connectivity in tourism travel.

“We are talking about facilitation of tourism and simplest travel as well as the important role of connectivity which is quite topical in our country. We are participating with the deputy Minister of transport and we should be able to come up with a strategy which makes travel into Zimbabwe better,” said Minister Mupfumira.

Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development, Advocate Fortune Chasi speaking at the UNWTO Ministerial meeting said African countries should open up the skies for unrestricted travel to promote tourism in Africa.

“There is need for us to ensure that within Africa, we are able to interrelate as far as aviation is concerned to make sure we do not have to go to Europe before we go to Africa. It’s  a very sad irony we must be able to open up skies to each other and allow tourism to flourish within Africa before we even think about tourists from outside Africa,” said the Deputy Minister.

Harare Post has learnt that Jorge Carlos Fonseca, the President of Cape Verde attended the three day event at the UNWTO Ministerial Conference where he said African countries should attract investment by providing indigenous capacity as far as resources are concerned.