Zimbabwe extends Look East Policy

ZIMBABWE has extended its Look East Policy through a tourism development initiative that has seen the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Pacific Asian Travel Association (Pata).

Zimbabwe, according to Pata chief of staff Mr Dale Lawrence, becomes the first African state to sign a MoU membership with the association, marking a new direction for Pata which initially only admitted members from their direct area of operation.

"When Pata was formed the objective was to support travel to, from and within the Pata geographical area of the Pacific and Asia. The admission of Zimbabwe as the first African member is in line with the mandate to support travel from the Pata area to that country," said Mr Lawrence during the signing ceremony in Bulawayo on Friday.

Mr Lawrence described Zimbabwe as a destination that offers a diverse range of tourism activities that caters for all age groups.

He said Zimbabwe was looking to the East as she seeks to boost its numbers in international visitors with the Pacific Asian region becoming the engine of growth for global tourism.

"The Asian Pacific region has an unprecedented level of growth in outbound travel with most countries like India and Thailand as well as other countries looking for new exciting destinations in the African region," Mr Lawrence said.

Speaking on the benefits that Zimbabwe will enjoy as a member of Pata, Mr Lawrence said the association was Zimbabwe's gateway to the potential lucrative Chinese market as well as having the opportunity to access a wealth of data, research and industry forecast.

"Zimbabwe will also have direct involvement with the association's trade shows and events and will have numerous chances to speak at travel industry conferences. We are in the process of persuading tourists to get away from popular cities and visit other destinations that offer similar interesting attractions," he said.

Mr Lawrence applauded the country's new visa regime saying it will go a long way in increasing visitors numbers as easing travel restrictions improves free flow of tourists.

ZTA chief executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke said although United Nations statistics showed that the Asian Pacific region has the highest number of outbound tourists, Africa had no reason to celebrate as it is not doing well in that region.

Mr Kaseke said Africa as a whole received under two million visitors from China's 120 million outbound tourists in 2015 with Zimbabwe at the bottom of the log in the Sadc region with about 6 000 arrivals and South Africa leading with 133 000 last year followed by Zambia with 65 000.

"The reason why this region is not doing well is because of the visa regime. We tend to concentrate more on the security of our nations even if there is no security threat, we use this as an excuse," said Mr Kaseke.

He urged countries to relax visa regimes and put countries like India in category B which allows visitors to get visas on arrival instead of category C which requires travellers to apply in their countries before travelling.

Mr Kaseke acknowledged Zimbabwe's special moment of being the first country from the region to become a member of Pata.

"This MoU in itself does not move things along, we need to fill the membership with activities and work together to accomplish our objectives, which is to increase travel from the Pacific and in particular Asia to Zimbabwe. In fact, now that we are a member I think we can host a major Pata meeting or tourism exhibition here in Zimbabwe in the space of five years," he said.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by ZTA board chairperson Mrs Chipo Mutasa as well as other board members and operators.