The ManicaPost
Obert Chifamba Post Correspondent
IN tourism, as in football, you won’t go far unless you know where the goalposts are. And where you can’t spot the goalposts on your won, don’t be shy to embrace the lenses proffered to you for the purpose by a friend.
At a recent stakeholder seminar on Community Based Tourism Enterprises in Harare, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Japan, Mr Dabide Tsunakake, went out of his way to help Zimbabwe’s tourism industry locate the goalposts they so direly need to prosper.
Besides being part of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), that is engaged in promoting community based tourism enterprises in Zimbabwe and different other countries, Mr Tsunakake is also involved in other interesting volunteer work for tourism in his private capacity, along with some Zimbabwean friends and some Japanese volunteer members from the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer (JOCV), each of whom has been dispatched to Zimbabwe for two years.
He is part of a mission dubbed the: “Project to make Victoria Falls a more fascinating destination for Japanese tourists.”
Mr Tsunakake made some very disturbing revelations about the goings-on at the Mighty Victoria Falls, which if not addressed promptly, may see tourist arrivals remaining constant or even surging but revenue continuing to drop by the day.
To quote him: “I am pleased to disclose that the number of Japanese tourists who come to Zimbabwe has reached about 20 000 per year. It is quite a big number. To tell the truth, I am very proud of this as a Japanese citizen who resides in Zimbabwe, every time I mention it to my Zimbabwean friends.
“But having conducted a survey through the said volunteer project, unfortunately, I recently became aware, with great dismay, of the fact that most Japanese tourists stay in Zimbabwe just for a few hours, only see the Victoria Falls briefly and go to the Zambian side, Livingstone, to do some shopping there.
“Even though there are indeed some Japanese tourists who stay on the Zimbabwean side at least for one night, all of them are forced to leave there the next morning anyway because of the lack of fascinating sites other than the National Park at Victoria Falls. According to them, more shockingly, they actually prefer to do their shopping for souvenirs in shops on the Zambian side, even though they may want to buy Zimbabwean products because they feel safer and more comfortable there in terms of the cleanliness and the attitudes of local people toward tourists,” he said.
Here, Mr Tsunakake is playing the role of the true friend that never gets in your way unless you happen to be falling down. He acknowledged the gravity of the situation adding that failure by Zimbabweans to enjoy any substantial benefits from tourism aside, their attitude towards tourists was also slowly drifting towards the hostile end by the day.
To bolster his claims he cited an incident in which vendors in Victoria Falls last year mobbed a group of foreign tourists trying to forcefully sell old Zimbabwean dollars as souvenirs, which he described as a frightening experience to those tourists, even though they may have been interested in buying Zimbabwean dollars.
Spurred by the realisation that Zimbabwe’s tourism industry is one of the most important sectors expected to lead the charge towards sustainable economic growth in the future, Mr Tsunakake challenged Zimbabweans to change their basic concept of what the tourism market is in line with the changing times. In the past, tourists were satisfied only with visiting and viewing certain famous sites while staying at luxurious hotels, but today most of them prefer to have more joyful experiences and interesting discoveries during their stay at the sites, through contact with the local communities and their original cultural heritages.
In this context, indeed, Zimbabwe has many impressive places and fascinating cultural traditions that are worthy showcasing to foreign tourists, yet this is not happening in essence. It is very important that this wealth of natural, historical, and cultural heritages should be preserved appropriately and developed in a sustainable way, so that they remain as fascinating tourism resources, which local people can benefit from and feel proud of their as their heritage.
Tourism. This project is not only meant to attract more tourists to local communities by developing facilities and advertising places of cultural heritage, but also to provide a beneficial and worthwhile experience for both tourists and local communities alike through the sharing of their indigenous traditional culture and appreciation for the natural heritages there.
To achieve this, it is imperative for local communities to be proud of their cultural traditions, their historical sites and natural heritages and to protect these by themselves. This will allow them to enjoy benefits from resources thereby alleviating poverty. Activities such as the selling of old Zimbabwean currency, though not bad, will need to be done properly to allow tourists to retain the respect they have for Zimbabweans, which is critical in maintaining the sustainability of the local tourism market. JICA has helped set up four pilot project sites and also drafted a CBT Manual and Handbook to highlight the useful lessons drawn from the pilot projects. The sites are Chesvingo Cultural Village in Masvingo, Gairezi Ecotourism in Manicaland, Bulawayo Township tourism and Tengenenge Arts and Crafts in Mashonaland Central.
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