Bulawayo (New Ziana) – In a bid to attract investment and foreign tourists, government and the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) will dispatch tourism attachés to various countries across the world, a cabinet minister has said.
Tourism and Hospitality Minister, Barbra Rwodzi said this at a Tourism Investment Forum organised by ZTA in Bulawayo. Tourism is one of the major national economic anchors, contributing at least 10 percent to the country`s Gross Domestic Product annually.
The sector is on a strong rebound, having been hardest hit by the outbreak of the Covid- 19 pandemic which saw countries imposing national lockdowns and travel restrictions to curb the spread of the respiratory viral infection.
“As government together with ZTA, we have taken deliberate measures to attract more investment and tourists in the tourism sector through training of attaches’ who will be deployed to various countries such as China, England, and Germany to mention but a few. “We are also targeting other places where we feel we can draw a number of tourists and investors into our country because we want both,” Rwodzi said.
Among other duties, she said the attachés will help to market Zimbabwe as an attractive tourist destinations.
Training of the attachés is currently underway, with some of them expected to be dispatched to their workstations at the beginning of next year.
“The attaché for China has already left the country and we are in the process of training those who will leave to other countries. Through the initiative and working together with (the) Foreign Affairs Ministry, we hope to bring more investment from China and many other countries,” Rwodzi said.
Under the National Development Strategy (NDS1), government is targeting to achieve a US$5 billion tourism economy by 2025.
New Ziana
