THE Europe Business Assembly (EBA) has respectively awarded the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) and its chief executive officer, Karikoga Kaseke, the best Enterprise in Tourism Marketing and Promotion and the best manager.
Selected leaders in business carefully assess the nominees of International EBA awards and determine winners.
The EBA award gives one a high business profile and enhanced reputation key to growth and visibility on the international platform.
The award is a major endorsement for the country’s tourism industry, especially coming from the backdrop of negative publicity by Western countries that fiercely opposed the country’s successful Land Reform Programme of 2 000.
That negative publicity resulted in a major decline of tourist arrivals from many source markets in the West.
It has taken aggressive marketing and re-branding of the country’s tourism industry by stakeholders led by the ZTA to regain the markets.
The country has since been rebranded to ‘Zimbabwe – A World of Wonders’ from ‘Africa’s Paradise’.
Countries such as Sierra Leone suffered immensely from bad publicity after the Ebola virus ravaged part of its population.
Egypt is yet to fully recover from the Arab spring which toppled president Hosni Mubarak from power in February 2011.
Travel bans were issued resulting in decline of tourists in these countries.
It has taken many African countries time to recover from devastating effects of negative media reports and there is need for African countries to rise above and find ways to cushion themselves in cases where they are unfairly vilified.
For Zimbabwe, efforts by the tourism ministry and its parastatal the ZTA have succeeded in re-positioning Brand Zimbabwe.
The awards given to the ZTA and its chief are evidence of the quality of the country’s tourism product.
Speaking at a press conference in Harare, Kaseke said the recognition will go a long way in helping Zimbabwe soar to greater heights.
“We are extremely humbled with these accolades because they are a serious endorsement of our country and will assist us in our marketing of the country,” he said.
“It shows the world is shifting their perception about the destination and we will be happy if these increase tourist arrivals.
“ZTA had to be more innovative and marketing outside the norm to market the destination.
“One of our aims is to attract investment into the tourism sector.
“Anyone who wants to invest in a country first visits the country.
“We have also realised how mega events and festivals have contributed to the growth of the sector and once we do well in hosting those, we uplift the country,” said Kaseke.
The 2017 carnival which saw the use of high technology equipment in music raised the bar while the Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo held in Bulawayo recently witnessed numerous international media and buyers coming into the country.
Also speaking during the press briefing, Zimbabwe Council of Tourism president Tich Hwingwiri said the awards were a result of hard work.
“This award is more about leadership and getting more out of people than management of people,” he said.
“It is the leadership of the ZTA chief executive that has brought these about.
“We want to bring more tourists into the country and the momentum has been created and we need to remain focused.”
The National Tourism Masterplan by the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry is envisaged to move the country into double digit tourism growth and guide the tourism development up to 2035.
The Masterplan considers 11 development zones for experimental areas and two national developmental projects uniquely Zimbabwean.
The tourism sector was previously a preserve of the elite and men but at the moment, there is a deliberate effort to have locals and women becoming owners of tourism businesses.