Zimbabwe, Zambia to launch joint UNWTO promotional video

Zimbabwe and Zambia will be launching a joint promotional video and a joint website ahead of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Assembly to be held in Victoria Falls and Livingstone in August.

The joint DVD will other among things contain tourist attractions of both countries while the website will allow delegates attending the General Assembly to access more information in terms of places of interest, hotel bookings, airport transfers and various leisure activities offered by the host towns.

Speaking soon after the 3rd UNWTO Joint Ministerial Committee meeting in Victoria Falls, the Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Engineer Walter Mzembi said the website will also show the detailed programme of events for the General Assembly, adding that the official launch will be conducted jointly at a ceremony to be held in Livingstone, Zambia on the 18th of this month.

"So the next stage now is to send the harmonised programme and structure back to the UNWTO so that they give it timing in terms of time allocations of each slot. Thereafter, it comes back to us and hopefully we should do the launch on the 18th of May," said Minister Mzembi.

Zambian Minister of Tourism and Arts, Sylvia Masebo said both countries are satisfied that areas of concern have been concluded, adding that the promotional DVD and other necessary documents indicating the state of preparedness for the two countries will be presented at the UNWTO Executive Council meeting to be held in Serbia at the end of this month.

She said, "Zambia and Zimbabwe are not separate destinations. The destination is one, so whatever, we do there has to be some commonality so that the visitors must feel they are being treated the same in both countries. I am happy to say this meeting has concluded all those matters."

Some of the key areas that the two countries looked at were the visa requirements for the delegates, infrastructure and security issues.

Part of the Zambian Secretariat is already operating from Livingstone and Zimbabwe is expected to immediately deploy part of its Secretariat to Victoria Falls, whose task will be responding to enquiries from officials and addressing other issues that may arise in the host towns ahead of the General Assembly.

Meanwhile, both countries have each engaged professional conference organisers for the tourism conference.

The Zambian government signed the contract with a South African firm on the 2nd of this month while Zimbabwe also signed an agreement with another South African firm, which will work in partnership with a local company, on the 6th of this month.

The move has been taken in line with the stipulations of the Tripartite Agreement between the two countries and the UNWTO signed at the Victoria Falls Bridge in May last year.

Minister Mzembi emphasised the need for all stakeholders to collaborate to ensure that the General Assembly is a success.

His Zambian counterpart, Ms Masebo hailed the spirit of collaboration between the two countries, saying the Joint Ministerial Committee meeting has provided them with a chance to address outstanding issues to ensure that they all meet international standards.

The two countries have also begun conducting block bookings of rooms with the professional conference organisers working closely with designated accommodation facilities and managing the reservation process.

Both countries have each identified seven up-market hotels in the two towns, which have a total of 3000 rooms for the delegates.