Zimbabwe will be participating at this year’s edition of the Arabian Travel Market Fair to be held in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai from 28 April to 1 May 2019. The Fair will provide a platform for the country to increase destination awareness to key tourism stakeholders and invited international buyers and media houses.
The ATM is the most established and successful outbound and regional travel trade exhibition in the Middle East market. This annual tourism business platform welcomes more than 39,000 travel professionals from the region and the world source markets at large. Statistics show that USD$2.5 billion worth of business was generated at last year’s edition of the show.
In an effort to increase market presence and visibility in this huge market Zimbabwe last year appointed VFS Global as its Market Representative for the Middle East. In 2018 Zimbabwe received 7 798 tourist arrivals as compared with 7 537 arrivals recorded in 2017 from the Arabian market. It is anticipated that active market presence in the Middle East market will increase destination awareness.
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority Acting Chief Executive Mrs Rita Likukuma said participation at the ATM goes a long way towards building confidence in the destination “The Arabian market gives us an opportunity to rebuild the confidence in destination Zimbabwe and establishing strategic partnership with leading tourism operators promoting packages to Southern Africa and the continent at large,” she said. The expanded Victoria Falls International Airport and Bulawayo’s Joshua Mqabuko International Airport in have also opened more access to international source markets as most airlines flying into Zimbabwe enjoy worldwide connectivity with the Dubai International Airport.
On the sidelines of the showcase, ZTA will be recruiting key tourism operators and media houses that will visit Zimbabwe on destination familiarisation tours. Investment promotion will also be top of the agenda for the Zimbabwean delegation.