As part of the 100-day initiative to drive domestic tourism by the Minister of Tourism and Hospitality, Priscilla Mupfumira, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) and Civil Service Travel Bureau (CSTB) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Speaking at the MOU signing ceremony between the two organisations Mr Givemore Chidzidzi, the Chief Operating Officer of ZTA said it was his organisation’s mandate to fulfil what the Minister started and promote domestic tourism in the country.
“It has gone unnoticed that 83% which brings 3,4 million has been foreign tourists. Domestic tourism has been growing and should be noted that it has been premised on business travel. Our main aim is to change business travel to leisure travel. We believe that if our own people develop a habit of traveling the foreign tourists will follow suit. The attraction places which we think do not attract a lot of people will bring more people,” Chidzidzi said.
Mr Chidzidzi said ZTA markets domestic tourism through digital market, press tours, advertisements in different media platforms as this will go a long way in fostering the growth of market.
Isaac Muchokomori, the Managing Director CSTB said his organisation was proud for being associated with ZTA as it was committed at ensuring that the tourism destinations are accessible and affordable.
“As CSTB, we are honoured to enter this partnership and we assure that we will provide services to all sectors which include; education, business, and cultural among others. It is our approach as the government-owned company to make sure we accommodate everyone in domestic tourism. Ours is a one-stop shop to both corporates and informal traders,” he said.
Muchokomori pointed out that the locals and the Diaspora’s were encouraged to visit their country and witness how rich the nation is in terms of the tourism sector.
The partnership aims to broaden their target market and encourage more Zimbabweans to experience their country’s offerings. It will introduce special packages like fly now pay latter, prepayments which is about paying in instalments.
The packages will also pay special attention to groups like school children, the elderly and religious groups among others. All people should afford visiting tourist destinations.
The Domestic tourism survey which was done in January showed that the number of domestic travellers was low due to a number of reasons which include unaffordable entry fees at certain places for the locals and the economic meltdown.
Minister Mupfumura highlighted that there was need to introduce special packages to the locals, elderly and school children – a good move that led to the partnership between ZTA and CSTB.