News / National
Zimbabwe lacks capacity to host global conventions
15 Aug 2014 at 08:34hrs | Views
Zimbabwe does not have requisite tourism infrastructure to sustain and attract international conferences, a senior tourism bureaucrat has said.
Briefing journalists in Harare on Thursday in the wake of the Jehovah's Witness annual conference scheduled for August 22 - 24 at the National Sports Stadium, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive officer, Karikoga Kaseke said the country's tourism infrastructure cannot sustain certain events.
"We should have conventional centres built by government. The Harare International Conference Center (HICC) is now tired. We do not currently, in our country, have a conventional centre. We should have centres like the ones in Cape Town, Durban and Santon in South Africa," he said.
Kaseke said Zimbabwe had bid to host only seven international conferences in 2016 and out of seven, the country will host only five of them, adding that the country continued to bid for conferences up to 2020.
He said it was the responsibility of government and the local authorities to build such structures as convention centres, as investors will not invest in such infrastructure because it was not unprofitable.
"We have been to China to look for an investor but they said they would rather build hotels and not convention centers, as they are not profitable. Currently, in Sub Sahara, we are not second to South Africa or third, fourth and fifth. If we do not have such structures, we won't have the edge to compete," he said.
Kaseke said close to 3 500 international pilgrims have been recorded and booked for the Jehovah's Witness annual conference but due to lack of infrastructure South African pilgrims, an estimated 50 000 were barred from attending for fear that their coming might have caused hiccups at the Beitbridge border post.
While Kaseke is spot on, and bemoaning Zimbabwe's lack of sound infrastructure, his boss, Walter Mzembi has been pontificating about Zimbabwe hosting the 2034 Soccer World Cup.
Zimbabwe successfully hosted the United Nations World Tourism Organisation 20th general assembly in Victoria Falls, last year in August, a development which somewhat gave the nation self belief that it could host any magnitude of international conferences.
Briefing journalists in Harare on Thursday in the wake of the Jehovah's Witness annual conference scheduled for August 22 - 24 at the National Sports Stadium, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive officer, Karikoga Kaseke said the country's tourism infrastructure cannot sustain certain events.
"We should have conventional centres built by government. The Harare International Conference Center (HICC) is now tired. We do not currently, in our country, have a conventional centre. We should have centres like the ones in Cape Town, Durban and Santon in South Africa," he said.
Kaseke said Zimbabwe had bid to host only seven international conferences in 2016 and out of seven, the country will host only five of them, adding that the country continued to bid for conferences up to 2020.
He said it was the responsibility of government and the local authorities to build such structures as convention centres, as investors will not invest in such infrastructure because it was not unprofitable.
"We have been to China to look for an investor but they said they would rather build hotels and not convention centers, as they are not profitable. Currently, in Sub Sahara, we are not second to South Africa or third, fourth and fifth. If we do not have such structures, we won't have the edge to compete," he said.
Kaseke said close to 3 500 international pilgrims have been recorded and booked for the Jehovah's Witness annual conference but due to lack of infrastructure South African pilgrims, an estimated 50 000 were barred from attending for fear that their coming might have caused hiccups at the Beitbridge border post.
While Kaseke is spot on, and bemoaning Zimbabwe's lack of sound infrastructure, his boss, Walter Mzembi has been pontificating about Zimbabwe hosting the 2034 Soccer World Cup.
Zimbabwe successfully hosted the United Nations World Tourism Organisation 20th general assembly in Victoria Falls, last year in August, a development which somewhat gave the nation self belief that it could host any magnitude of international conferences.
Source - Zim Mail
