A leading South Korean tour operator hopes to explore Sanganai/Hlanganani World Travel Expo and sell Zimbabwe’s tourism products in that country and Asia at large.
Cheng Shipak who is among the buyers from South Korea confirmed they had booked for a pre-tour ahead of the world expo which would take them to Victoria Falls, Hwange National Park, Bulawayo and Harare. “We are attending Sanganai/Hlanganani as buyers and looking forward to meeting the rest of the world at this tourism exchange.
“We want to enhance our knowledge and experience about destinations we have since booked to take part in a pre-tour that covers the Mighty Victoria Falls, Hwange National Park, Bulawayo and Harare,” he said.
“We insist on collaborating with tour companies in Zimbabwe and southern Africa as a whole thereby driving tourist traffic from South Korea and Asia at large,” he added.
Victoria Falls based tour operator, Barbara Murasiranwa, is hopeful that the 12th edition of the Sanganai/Hlanganani World Expo would live up to expectations.
“We’re very ready as a tourism industry and we’re expecting to meet up with a lot of buyers who will bring Zimbabwe as a destination back on the map” she said.
“When the buyers come and buy from Zimbabwe not from South Africa buying Zimbabwe or Uganda or any other country it builds confidence for the buyers or source markets to say we’ve seen what they have in store”, said Murasiranwa.
“There is going to be some familiarisation tours where we receive buyers show them what we have in terms of hotels and activities that we encourage them to spend more than the days that they are spending because they can see there is so much to do in Zimbabwe that they cannot just book for a day and leave Zimbabwe,” she said.
Murasiranwa said they were excited for the Sanganai/Hlanganai and thanked Zimbabwe Tourism Authority for putting together the world expo.
ZTA Head of Corporate Affairs, Godfrey Koti, confirmed that over 250 exhibitors have registered with about 20 countries having confirmed their participation including India, China, Nigeria, Zambia, South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique.
“This is going to be a three-day event in which we are trying to promote Zimbabwe for MICE, which is Meetings, Incentives Conferences and Exhibitions.
"We are promoting Zimbabwe as a MICE destination where people come and converge.
They must also take this opportunity to do business and we want to use this event to further promote that idea, especially with the fact that this exposition is registered under the United Nations World Tourism Organisation calendar,” he said.