From Arab to Asia: Destination Zimbabwe on a whirlwind tourism campaign

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Destination Zimbabwe is exhibiting at the 29th edition of South Asia’s Travel & Tourism Exchange (SATTE) this year, from 15 – 22 May 2022, and will be held at India Expo Mart, Greater Noida, Delhi-NCR.

Following a successful showcase at the recently ended Arabian Travel Market, the participation is in line with the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy which focuses on all efforts towards the recovery of international tourism to Zimbabwe.

In 2019 Zimbabwe received 21 958 tourist arrivals whilst in 2018 the country received 19 428 from India thereby registering a 13% increase which shows the great potential this market has for Zimbabwe. Approximately 26 million Indian travellers engage in outbound trips across the world.

The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority Acting Chief Executive, Mr. Givemore Chidzidzi said, “The leading Asian outbound tourism show offers Zimbabwe an opportunity to engage the huge and growing Indian market as well as the Asian long haul operators packaging Zimbabwe and the Southern African region”.

“This is indeed Asia’s leading travel and tourism exhibition which offers a comprehensive platform to reconnect with the industry through Business To Business discussions and networking opportunities for the Destination,” he added.

Zimbabwe seeks to attract traffic from India given the strong cultural and economic ties between the two countries. “The Zimbabwe product appeals to the Indian market. There is a lot of interest in sports tourism, particularly cricket which enjoys a huge following in India and this is a massive connection point as the ZTA already enjoys an exclusive partnership with the Zimbabwe Cricket,” said Chidzidzi.

In 2020 SATTE attracted the most important B2B networking events attended by more than 50,000 trade visitors and more than 35,000 travel and tourism professionals during the three days of the show. In addition, they also welcomed over 1,100 exhibitors, 200 foreign buyers from over 50 countries, and 500 domestic hosted buyers from 104 Indian cities.

Zimbabwe’s participation at the SATTE tourism show will help improve destination awareness, a valuable opportunity to learn more about the emerging trends, and encourage Indian operators to promote holiday packages to Zimbabwe.