OVER 300 Chinese business and leisure tourists are expected in the country this Thursday in a development indicating significant recovery of the country’s hospitality sector.
Briefing the media on the landmark visit Wednesday evening, Tourism Minister Prisca Mupfumira said the visit was clear testimony efforts to revive the sector were beginning to bear fruit.
“We are here to witness yet another milestone in our relationship that will see an historical group of over 343 Chinese business and leisure tourists arriving in our beloved country after touring Djibouti and Tanzania.
“We are extremely excited by the potential to attract over 10 000 visitors from Tour Africa – The New Horizon tourism project that will run for the next 5 years. With the support from Touchroad and the Government of the People’s Republic of China, we have no doubt that our grand goal of increasing tourism arrivals from China will be achieved much earlier than 2025,” she said.
Mupfumira said the grand initiative was birthed on the 6th of April 2018 when the Tourism Ministry and Touchroad International Holdings Group entered into a Memorandum of Agreement to facilitate investment and tourism promotion between Zimbabwe and China.
This was followed by the implementation phase which immediately commenced with various business exchange programmes having been conducted to date.
They include the visit to Zimbabwe by a business delegation from Zhejiang province led by Che Jun, the Secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China in June 2018.
The visit is historic because Zimbabwe has never received such a big group before.
“The grand group will tour the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Great Zimbabwe National Monument – one of the symbols of the great relationship between Zimbabwe and China, Harare and the iconic majestic Victoria Falls, another UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the seven natural wonders of the world, among several attractions of Zimbabwe,” Mupfumira said.
