By Patricia Mashiri
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) is in pursuit of maximising profits and economy revival through public-private partnerships.
That emerged at a multi-stakeholder workshop of event planners and organisers, airlines, government departments and educational institutions on how to market Zimbabwe as a tourist destination, increase tourists stay in the country and improve investments.
Noni Khubeka, the Head of Gauteng Conventions Bureau from South Africa said this is a turn around strategy of ZTA on how they can partner with other stakeholders in profit maximisation in line with the theme ‘Unique and attractive destination ‘ by 2020.
“In trying to achieve the vision by 2020 ZTA should consider a certain number of things within their organisations which includes human resource management, public relations and destination management among others.
“In Public relations there should be accurate, effective timeous communication of information with the outside world.The destinations management should ensure that there is incentivising of operators to come up with unique products in the areas that are less developed so that they also become tourist destinations,” Khubeka said.
ZTA was advised to improve facilities, products and services in order to stimulate economic growth and increase revenue, increase employment and improve thee quality of life of the people in tourist destinations.
“The brand awareness must be improved for Zimbabwe as a tourist destination and local businesses should be provided with a platform to benefit from the tourists.
“We are using the seven wonders and every marketing tool in ZTA to make people realise how Zimbabwe is a beautiful country not only for promoting leisure but to use the opportunity to trade, make investments and exhibition of products,” Khubeka said.