Tourism sector could transform Zimbabwe economy

Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi says Zimbabwe's tourism sector has the potential to transform the country's economy if supported by the fiscus.

This came out at the launch of a book on economic development in Africa focusing on tourism.

Tourism is rated as the third largest global export earner after fuel and chemicals.

However, Zimbabwe is still lagging behind in terms of harnessing opportunities in the tourism sector.

Mzembi expressed disappointment at the meagre budgetary allocation ascribed to the sector for the past nine years.

Officer-in-charge of the United Nations Information Centre Mrs Tafadzwa Mwale says Zimbabwe tourism has the capacity to stimulate economic growth and achieve eight of the 17 sustainable development goals.

African Capacity Building Foundation director Dr Thomas Munthali weighed in highlighting the need to put in place policies that promote integration between tourism and other sectors of the economy.

The book contains statistics of performance of the tourism sector in different African countries and it also shows the industry has so far created over 21 million jobs in Africa.