Gift Mashoko

Zimbabwe is taking its tourism to greater heights as Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) opens a tourism office in Shanghai, China opening up tourism in Zimbabwe.

ZTA Acting Chief Executive officer Rita Likukuma said the idea of opening an office in China is meant to intensify the number of tourists from the Asian region.

“We witnessed the signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Touch road and the Ministry of Tourism for China together with the Ministry of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality for Zimbabwe. The significance of that speaks to the volumes of tourists we are going to be getting from China.

“Already we are having the first inaugural chartered flight which is a three country visit of Djibouti, Tanzania and Zimbabwe,” she said.

The strategic partnership will see a group of over 300 Chinese businesses and leisure tourists on an African tour of Djibouti, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe documentaries are already being aired in China.

Minister of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Prisca Mupfumira, recently announced how the tourist arrivals from China have grown since 2017, with Zimbabwe tourist arrivals from China having grown from 14 407 arrivals in 2017 to 19 428 in 2018. She said the country is definitely destined for better prospects since it has taken a giant step as a destination to become China Ready.

This initiative follows President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s mantra of Zimbabwe being open for business as this is the only way the country can develop into a middle income economy by 2030. No country can survive or live in isolation.