Tourism ministry in chaotic celebrations

By Bianca Rugeje

The Tourism ministry made a mess of its belated World Tourism Day celebrations in Kwekwe last week.

Scores of journalists who were bussed in from Harare were left stranded with no food and accommodation due to the ministry’s bungling and lack of proper event management skills.

The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) – through its spokesperson Sugar Chagonda – had to come and salvage the situation, which was getting out of hand on Thursday night after members of the media were denied accommodation at a local hotel.

Tourism minister Walter Mzembi failed to show up for the event while his deputy Anastacia Ndlovu could not step up to the plate as the event only began two hours later.

In her address, Ndlovu said there was need to implement laws for accessible tourism to create an integrated and inclusive tourism in the country.

“If the tourism industry wants to maintain and develop quality, sustainability and competitiveness it must support and develop tourism accessible for all, because accessible tourism benefits everyone,” she said.

The Zanu PF legislator noted that there was need for the designing and redesigning of both new and old infrastructure to enable people with unique access requirement including mobility, vision , hearing and cognitive dimensions to have dignified access equity and sharing. Daily News