Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry is looking to build a US$5 billion tourism economy, contributing 15 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product, Tourism Minister Mzembi has said.
In an interview with 263Chat, Mzembi said his ministry has a vision to make Zimbabwe a world class destination attracting five million tourists arrivals by 2020.
“We want to make Zimbabwe a world class destination by 2020, we already are, by virtue of the endowments that we have in our country, Victoria Falls being the signature tourist attraction for the country and we are good to go.
Mzembi said the development of a national strategic plan which will be a dashboard for tourism product development.
“We have a 156 page A2 size document which basically captures the dashboard for tourism product development going forward to 2035.
“Following on from this, we have developed a national strategic plan with national strategy on how we are going to achieve our vision.
“So we have 11 tourists’ development zones that have been captured, some of them have been lucky to be designated beyond being tourist economic zones to special economic zones like Victoria Falls meaning that it has enhanced features in terms of investment attractiveness,” he said.
According to Mzembi’s deputy, Anastasia Ndlovu, funding for the development of the Tourism Master Plan came from the African Development Bank.
“I would like to appreciate the African Development Bank for availing funding for the development of the Tourism Master Plan and Keios Development Consulting for assisting us in developing the document.
“The master plan has divided the country into tourism developments zones and it has also identified potential development in provinces,” she said.
