Japan ready to assist Zim tourism

Lazarus Sauti

The government of Japan is committed to work with tourism authorities in Zimbabwe to fortify goodwill which already exist in the tourism sector.

This pledge emerged from across-the-board dialogue between Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Tourism, Anastancia Ndhlovu, and Yasuto Kawarabayashi, Vice Commissioner of the Japan Tourism Agency at the Tokyo headquarters of the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, on Friday 23 September.

“The Japanese tourism authorities, working in collaboration with the Japan’s International Cooperation Agency (JICA), are interested in expanding their support for our community-based tourism projects.

“They fully appreciate the importance of the programme, as well as the fact that communities, especially in rural areas, need to derive direct benefit from tourist activities and attractions which are located within their midst,” Ndhlovu said.

She added that JICA is already working with the country in support of this programme.

“We are counting on them to continue and indeed expand that level of support – including assisting us to develop a practical manual for community-based tourism enterprises – which could then be availed throughout southern Africa,” she said.

Kawarabayashi noted that his ministry enjoyed excellent working relations with JICA and would now liaise with the agency with a view to the development of more community-based tourism-related projects in Zimbabwe, which currently receives approximately 30 000 Japanese tourists each year, almost exclusively destined for the Victoria Falls, as part of a set of package tours marketed in Japan, offering Japanese tourists a combination of destinations within the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The most popular of the package tours – which, typically, range between eight to 14 days – also include visits to South Africa (Kruger National Park –Cape Town) and Botswana (Chobe National Park).

Ndhlovu was in Japan to head up Zimbabwe’s participation in the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA), 2016, the country’s annual international Tourism Fair which, this year, attracted the participation of more than 140 nations, including a number of African countries and all 15 SADC member-states under the banner of the Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (RETOSA), a SADC body responsible for the development of tourism and regional destination marketing across the bloc.

This coordinated southern African participation has been sponsored by the (JICA), which, under the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), identified tourism as a key sub-pillar for support as part of Japan’s overall thrust to promote and strengthen the Agenda 2063 – Africa’s own development blueprint.

Ndhlovu’s brief in Japan also included engaging the Japanese government on the candidature of Dr Walter Mzembi, the Minister of Tourism and the Hospitality Industry, for the post of Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

Kawarabayashi acknowledged Mzembi’s impressive credentials for the job and promised to maintain close communication with the Government of Zimbabwe as the electoral process evolves.


Elections for the new Secretary General will take place during the UN Nations World Tourism Organisation Executive Council meeting to be held in Madrid, Spain, in May 2017.

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