Fabulous destinations in Zimbabwe exhibited at the MATTA Fair in Malaysia.

By Martin Chemhere

Zimbabwe’s unrivalled tourism options made a huge impression when they were showcased for the first time at the recently concluded Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) Fair in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Destination Zimbabwe is a Zimbabwe Tourism Authority

(ZTA) initiative designed to promote local tourism in Malaysia and the Southeast Asian region.

The Asian region event went live for three days (17 to 19 March), attracting over 460 exhibitors and proved to be the leading ‘Consumers Travel Fair’ in Malaysia.

In attendance at the fair were an estimated 100,000 visitors from Malaysia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, and the rest of the world.

“This year MATTA Fair was bigger and better than the previous years. The fair has shifted to a new location covering 37,000 sqm, setting a new record as the largest international travel fair in the region featuring over 500 travel and hospitality businesses from all over the world,” according to a post on the ZTA Facebook page.

In a media statement ZTA’s Executive Director for International Marketing, Mr Jeffreys Manjengwa, says Zimbabwe is targeting emerging markets such as Malaysia, Singapore and various South East Asian countries.

“It was such a great show for us as the ZTA. We’re looking at harnessing traffic flow of tourists from this part of the world into the destination. This is in an effort to meet the country’s tourist arrivals targets. Zimbabwe and Uganda were the only two African countries that participated,” said Manjengwa.

“Zimbabwe’s participation raised a lot of enthusiasm for the Malaysian market. The market became aware of the existence of Africa as a continent and Zimbabwe as a major destination in Southern Africa. Interestingly, the indication is that around 90% of the traffic who came to the show were not wellaware of the destination or physical location of Zimbabwe, however interestingly the market is aware of our major icon, Victoria Falls,” he said.

“The greatest takeaway from this engagement is that awareness of destination Zimbabwe raised a lot of interest such that operators have already begun including Zimbabwe in their packages,” he added.

Thirty agencies expressed interest in collaborating with the ZTA to come on a destination familiarisation tour later this year during Sanganai-Hlanganani World Tourism Expo.

The trip to Malaysia augurs well for Zimbabwe, as the country is currently vigorously pursuing an ambitious US$5 billion tourism economy by the year 2025.