By Own Correspondent- The first group of Chinese tourists under the Touch Road Project arrived in the country recently, for a four day tour of Zimbabwe.
This follows the successful signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between Zimbabwe and China recently.
The delegates, the first batch of the expected 10 000 tourists set to visit Zimbabwe under the “Touch Road project” arrived aboard a chartered Air Ethiopian Airways and were received at the Robert Mugabe International Airport by Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Prisca Mupfumira and other senior government officials.
In her welcoming remarks, Mupfumira said the arrival of the delegation is the beginning of the implementation of the agreed areas of cooperation between Zimbabwe and its all weather friend, China.
She said:
“We are happy to note that our cooperation with China Touch Road International Group has contributed to the growth of tourists arrivals in Zimbabwe. There will definitely be a marked increase as we want to draw all our Chinese visits to Zimbabwe to a meaningful number.”
Before coming to Zimbabwe the group went through Djibouti and Tanzania as part of their 10-Day African journey.
Mupfumira also revealed that the grand group will tour the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Great Zimbabwe, the National Monument and the majestic Victoria Falls.
She added:
“Our delegates will get a chance to experience our wonderful people, our culture, our heritage and our rich history. They will also see Zimbabwe’s pristine wildlife and nature, the mythical Kariba Dam, the mighty Zambezi and not forgetting the mountainous areas of the Eastern Highlands.
This visit will not be a once off visit from such groups since we are expecting more Chinese groups to come to Zimbabwe. Through this initiative, we are expecting about 10 000 Chinese tourists.
Our country has not been performing well as a tourism destination for the Chinese market since the closure of the Zimbabwe Tourist Office in Beijing and the withdrawal of Air Zimbabwe flights in September 2011. These negative market developments saw tourists’ arrivals from China declining from 30 549 arrivals in 2011 to 11 439 in 2018.”
The Tour Africa- The New Horizon Tourism Project has been identified as one of the opportunities meant to open the Chinese market to destination Zimbabwe considering that tourism is one of the key pillars of economic revival in Zimbabwe.