Zimbabwe Tourists Arrivals Increase By 11 Percent

ZIMBABWE Tourism Authority has said tourist arrivals from the traditional source markets increased by 11 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period last year.

ZTA chief executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke said inspite of the negative publicity the country had been receiving from the Western media the tourism sector's image marketing programmes undertaken since the beginning of the year had begun yielding positive results

Mr Kaseke said there had been a significant increase in tourists "flocking" into the country particularly from the East and Russia to enjoy the diversity of attractions found in the country.

However, towards the end of the fourth quarter last year and into the first quarter of this year tourist arrivals had fallen 47 percent.

The country's largest hospitality group African Sun said arrivals during the six months to March had declined six percent from last year's growth of 17 percent.

The group said they had cancellation of close to 10 000 rooms by foreigners just before the elections.

Russia had shown the largest growth of 542 percent after tour operators and travel agents from the country visited Zimbabwe under a marketing deal while there was also strong growth from Italy and Malawi.

Mr Nhema said figures were already showing an increase of tourist arrivals from the region particularly from South Africa.

Arrivals from the United States, Australia, China and South Korea had also increased while arrivals from South America, Indonesia and Malaysia had gone down.

Mr Kaseke also revealed that ZTA will soon have another programme called The Goodwill Ambassadorial Programme, "which will mainly bring in ordinary people to see for themselves the situation in the country."

Earlier in the week the Minister of Environment and Tourism Mr Francis Nhema said the tourism sector should brace for an imminent increase in tourist arrivals as the industry has set the tone for recovery.
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