Zimbabwe’s participation at the recently opened Fitur Travel Show in Madrid, Spain has begun on a high note with prospects of increased tourist influx into the destination from that European market.
Leading the delegation to this show, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Mr Munesu Munodawafa said that Zimbabwe continues to maintain its presence in Spain.
“Spain is a critical market for us and inevitably so because it is the headquarters of the tourism global body, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). This is strategic positioning for us to increase our influence on the global arena while simultaneously growing our tourism traffic from that market.” he said.
Meanwhile the Acting Chief Executive of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), Mr Givemore Chidzidzi, expressed excitement at the results that Zimbabwe has already started to reap in Spain. “Our participation at Fitur this year has already begun paying off as we have met with some of the biggest tour wholesalers in the world.
Of noteworthy mention is TUI who have committed to increasing their traffic to Zimbabwe. TUI committed to step up their activity in Zimbabwe, which is a growing destination for them with so much to offer. Currently they are selling packages with options ranging from 7 – 10 days across Victoria Falls, Hwange, Bulawayo, Matobo , Harare and Masvingo.
“We are looking to do joint promotion with Zimbabwe through e-learning training and familiarization trips to Zimbabwe, where we shall send top performing agents in the next quarter there. We hope to venture into new areas in Zimbabwe that are less known.” said a TUI representative.
“Zimbabwe is excited to have the caliber of TUI on board and other big operators and certainly hope to increase arrivals from the 13 528 recorded in 2018 which in itself was an 8% increase from the preceding year which recorded 12 583 arrivals from Spain.
We certainly hope that our joint promotion programs with TUI will help us increase traffic from Spain thereby yielding desired results and contributing to recovering market share lost in other European markets.” Chidzidzi iterated.
TUI is the world’s biggest tourism Company in the world with a network of over 5000 travel agencies in Spain alone, 6 airlines with around 150 aircraft, over 300 hotels with 214000 beds, 14 cruise liners and recorded about 19 million Euros in revenue in 2019.
