Zimbabwe hosts incentive travel executive summit

Text by Martin Chemhere

In a bid to drive rapid tourism industry growth, Zimbabwe hosted a summit attended by twenty-five international board members of the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) in Victoria Falls from 21–23 June 2023.

SITE is a professional association dedicated exclusively to the global incentive travel industry.

Its leadership team are C-Suite executives from leading businesses in the field of incentive travel, across source markets and beyond. They are also thought leaders and key decisionmakers pioneering the growth of the multibillion global incentive travel industry. Experts say that the global incentive travel market topped $42.0 billion in 2021, while going forward, it is projected to generate $216.8 billion by 2031, establishing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.1% from 2022 to 2031.

Zimbabwe’s hosting of the summit presented an opportunity for the country to position itself as a strong emerging destination for incentive travel. This is expected to in turn provide incentive planners’ ongoing search for new destinations that offer truly unique, authentic, and creative experiences.

Incentive travel uses once-in-a-lifetime travel experiences as the ultimate reward or prize for extraordinary performance in a business setting.

According to recent research, incentive travel budgets are expected to rise by 34% in 2023, with a gradual return to mid/long-haul destinations.

ZTA

Chief Executive, Ms Winnie Muchanyuka, said before the summit, that the visiting delegation would have the opportunity to sample some of the exclusive incentiveready properties in Zimbabwe and participate in engaging activities in the adventure capital, Victoria Falls.

“We’re honored and quite excited to have the SITE executive in the country. We view them as ambassadors who will reinforce our marketing efforts in driving the viability of incentive travel in Zimbabwe. We’re certain that this is a perfect opportunity for them to explore our MICE products and we hope that they will take some time to enjoy what Victoria Falls has to offer,” said Muchanyuka.

Muchanyuka went on to say, “The initiative will expose key executives to

Zimbabwe’s unique selling points and help attract more incentive travelers to the country, translating to the increased tourist arrivals we are striving to achieve.”

SITE CEO Annette Gregg, MBA, CMM, said her organization is looking forward to working with Zimbabwe. “SITE is committed to working with new and emerging destinations and helping position and refine their offerings for discerning incentive travel qualifiers. With its unique natural setting, world heritage sites, and incentive-ready resorts, hotels, and lodges, Zimbabwe has so much to offer.

SITE looks forward to working with the local incentive travel community to delivering awardwinning incentive travel programs in Southern Africa,” said Greg.

SITE was founded in 1973, and has a membership of 2,500 spread across 90 countries, working in corporations, agencies, airlines, cruise companies, and across the entire destination supply chain. It is the only global organization dedicated to strengthening and supporting the incentive travel industry.