Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Prisca Mupfumira will next week lead a Zimbabwean delegation to Spain for the 2018 edition of the International Tourism Fair (FITUR) set for 17th to 21st January amid high expectations resulting from the international community’s warm reception of country’s new administration.
In a statement, Zimbabwe Tourism (ZTA) Chief Executive, Karikoga Kaseke said Zimbabwe’s participation at FITUR will help push forward the tourism agenda to the Spanish market and to the rest of the world.
Kaseke added that the platform presents an opportunity for Zimbabwe to engage various United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) member states to rally behind the country’s tourism development agenda which seeks to re-position and regain the lost market.
“We are going with the Minister and we hope the Minister will take the opportunity to answer to the questions that are normally being asked by major tourism players in the globe, what this new dispensation that we are having in Zimbabwe is all about and encourage the world to support this new development,” said Kaseke.
He pinned hopes on the new era saying tourism in Zimbabwe is set for recovery but is dependent more on the strategies Zimbabwe comes up with.
Tourism operators in the country believes it is critical for destination Zimbabwe to leverage on opportunities like FITUR given the positive developments brought about by the new dispensation.
The new dispensation has received wide support from the international ready to embrace and reconfigure their working relationship with Zimbabwe.
This makes Zimbabwe’s participation at this year’s edition of FITUR essential from a networking and business perspective while it also presents a perfect opportunity to explain the new dispensation to the global family of tourism.
FITUR is the leading trade fair in Spain and number three (3) in the world after Internationale Tourismus-Börse (ITB) Berlin and World Travel Mart (WTM) London. It is the place where the globe converges to map out the future of tourism in the world as the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) headquarters is based in Madrid, Spain.
In 2017 FITUR attracted a record 9,893 exhibiting companies from 165 countries/ regions, more than 135,858 trade participants and 107,213 public visitations.
On the sidelines of FIRTUR, a Chinese Tourism Outbound Seminar, Tourism Investment and Business Forum for Africa and the (UNWTO) Awards for Innovation and Excellence will be hosted.
Currently, the Spanish market contributes 6,5% of all rivals from Europe and is the sixth largest contributor of arrivals from the bloc after the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France, Benelux and Italy, contributing 36% above the previous year.
