Harare, (New Ziana) – The Southern African Development Community (SADC) plans to organise a road trip across some of its member states next year to promote tourism, and regional unity, a senior government official said on Friday.
Dubbed the “SADC Live Your Life Road Trip”, the journey will start from Tanzania, meander through some SADC countries before ending in Zimbabwe. It is penciled in for February 15 to March 15 next year, and primarily focus on tourist places in the various SADC member states.
The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Nick Mangwana said each of the 16 SADC member state will take part in the regional road trip, and powerful vehicles for this had already been procured.
“This concept was proposed by Zimbabwe through the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and got the nod of the ministry. We communicated it through appropriate channels and all the SADC states bought into the idea,” he said.
“Of the 17 Land Rovers that will be touring SADC, 16 represent each SADC state while the 17th symbolizes the aspiration of the region in attaining the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations in 2015 to address pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges by 2030,” he added.
Mangwana said apart from participants in the trip officially representing their countries, private citizens from SADC member states would be welcome to join in.
The broader intention of the trip, he said, was to promote the rich tourism endowments in the sub-region, and foster regional unity.
“SADC as a region is the sponsor of the live your dream road trip and will have its own identified personnel attending but space has also been left for those who want to make personal arrangements, Mangwana said.
“We will announce in due course the costs that individuals sponsoring themselves may need to cover. I’m informed that these costs will be very affordable, as tourism is intended to be accessible to everyone,” he said.
He said the final stop of the tour will be in Zimbabwe, where a luncheon will be held for the touring team at the Museum of African Liberation where attendees will also have the opportunity to congratulate President Emmerson Mnangagwa on his recent appointment as chairman of the regional bloc.
New Ziana
