Hello China! For a growing number of Chinese jetsetters, African tourism is the next destination for adventure and cultural education. It only makes sense for the Zimbabwean Tourism Authority (ZTA) to open tourism offices in Shanghai and Beijing this year.
The Minister of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Prisca Mupfumira says China is one of the biggest tourist source markets for Zimbabwe, hence the need for an aggressive approach to showcase the country’s tourism offerings to the Chinese market.
“We are at an advanced stage of opening a tourism office, firstly in Shanghai where we already have offices and everything ready – it’s a matter of us deploying the people there. We also want to open offices in Beijing and other cities so that we are visible (in China).”
Mupfumira says Zimbabwe’s tourist arrivals from China grew from 14 407 in 2017 to 19 428 last year. “Anyone ignoring China at this moment can do so at their own peril, given that the country is now globally acknowledged as a vital source market. The Chinese have spent over US$115 billion globally in outbound tourism expenditure in 2018 and are projected by the UNWTO to double the current outbound trips to 200 million by 2020.”
