Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo excites region
THE curtain came down on the Sanganai/ Hlanganani World Tourism Expo yesterday with regional countries describing the tourism showcase as one of the biggest and exceptionally organised events in the Sadc region.
The three-day Expo which was held at the Zimbabwe International Exhibition Centre in Bulawayo between Thursday and yesterday attracted more than 270 exhibitors, surpassing the 250 target that had been set by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA).
The premier fair was the first in-person meeting since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic. In an interview, South Africa’s Limpopo Tourism Agency brand manager Mr Jerry Mamabolo said the Expo was a huge success.
“I represent the Limpopo Province of South Africa which is the closest province by proximity to Zimbabwe. Before the Covid19 pandemic I had been attending Sanganai/ Hlanganani consistently for quite a while. In my view this is the biggest regional tourism showcase in Sadc and the quality of the buyers and exhibitors here was quite good,” said Mr Mamabolo.
He said it was encouraging to see even the Zimbabwean Government participating at such shows as it signified that they take it seriously as well. Mr Mamabolo affirmed their commitment as an Agency to continue working well with ZTA and supporting their programmes such as the premier showcase.
“The tourism showcase has a significance in the region, it’s an illustration that we are one destination separated by simple borders,” he said.
Mr Mamabolo said as a province, Limpopo had a number of tourist attractions to offer noting that they had a warm climate throughout the year and national parks such as Kruger, Marakele and Mapungubwe which had strong links to Great Zimbabwe and a lot of other archaeological sites.
Malawi Department of Tourism Marketing senior tourism officer Ms Maria Kantchentche said the Expo provided them an opportunity to also meet international buyers to whom they wanted to sell Malawi as a tourism destination. She said they attended the showcase to also network with big tour operators in the region and Zimbabwe as they sought more partnerships.
“We do hope that after setting relationships with those tour operators they can be able to send clients to Malawi. We are also looking to link up with our counterparts in the Ministry of Tourism in Zimbabwe as well as around the region,” said Ms Kantchentche.
She said there was a Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries (Zimbabwe and Malawi) on how to handle tourism issues and their goal was to develop more packages that link the two countries. Ms Kantchentche said it was exciting for the region to have a platform like the Expo where they could meet their clients or potential partners in promoting tourism destinations as well as developing them.
“Malawi is one of the underdeveloped countries and such platforms where in the programme they have included a development session for tourism within the region that is a plus for us because we also benchmark on how others are doing it and we will also be able to learn a few things which we can replicate back home,” she said.
As a first-time exhibitor, Rwanda Development Board’s Tourism Promotion Division Strategic Marketing specialist Mr Jean Baruhura said it was an exciting opportunity to attend the Expo.
“It is our first time to participate at the Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo and we are looking at increasing awareness about Rwanda as a tourism destination, so we met different people who specialise in different things or categories such as tourism, industry and operators from the region, world and mostly Zimbabwe,” he said.
Mr Baruhura said their goal was to attract a number of tourists who were visiting Southern Africa to expand their trips to Rwanda as well.
He said like any other countries they had a lot of things to offer such as eco-tourism, adventure, culture and the vibrant City of Kigali their capital noting that it was very easy to connect to Rwanda from any part of the world.
“We already have an MoU between the two governments (Rwanda and Zimbabwe) to increase co-operation in tourism, tourism promotion and development, Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions (MICE) tourism. The MoU is running since last year and we are advancing in different areas and soon we will do exchanges in terms of skills development and packaging the two destinations. We are working closely with our counterparts in Zimbabwe,” he said.
Zambia Tourism Agency Tourism promotions officer Mr Moses Wamunyima said the Expo gave them an opportunity to sell Zambia and let people know more about it.
“Some would think if you are talking about Zambia tourism you are only talking about Livingstone where we have the Victoria Falls. However, we also have the Northern Socket where we have different water falls, more than 15 different activities and over 10 national parks, among others,” he said.