Team Zimbabwe in Mauritius for Inaugural Bleisure Summit

Destination Zimbabwe, represented by a delegation from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) is in Mauritius for the inaugural Bleisure Trade and Investment Summit. The summit kicked off on Monday, March 27, 2023 and will end on the 28th of March.

Bleisure is a platform that combines business and leisure for business travellers to make the most of their trip by exploring the destination they are visiting.

Speaking on the sidelines of the conference, ZTA’s Executive Director for Special Projects, Mr. Reason Machigere said, “The Summit is a platform for the ZTA to network and engage the Africa investment community and promote tourism investment opportunities in Zimbabwe,” said Machigere.

*^{Team Zimbabwe: ZTA delegates to the inaugural Bleisure Summit in Mauritius}*

“We’re here to engage with the African markets, with a view to explore how best we can take advantage of the Inter-continental Free Trade Area to enhance internal trade and within African boarders,” he added.

“One issue we discussed is access into various African destinations. This is to ensure the promotion of tourism amongst Africans. We agreed on the need to stimulate intra-Africa travel. We also discussed the need to take a closer look at the issue of product diversification and how we are promoting it,” Machigere added.

The conference has been highly successful in the sense that it has enabled linkages between leisure travel and business travel. The two combined have the capacity to enhance and increase length of stay, in destinations, thereby contributing towards enhanced revenue generation.

The ZTA under the leadership of its Chief Executive Officer, Winnie Muchanyuka has been very active at various travel and tourism trade shows, such as: Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) and 43rd Edition of the Feria Internacional de Turismo/ International Tourism Trade Fair (FITUR) in Madrid, Spain.

ZTA was also at the leading world tourism fair, ITB Berlin 2023, where Zimbabwe clinched the Natural Beauty in Africa Destination of The Year Award. In addition, Mangaliso Ndlovu, the Minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry received the Best Minister of Tourism for Southern Africa, while ZTA Chief Ms. Winnie bagged the Professional Destination Management Award.

The inaugural edition of the Bleisure Trade and Investment Forum, an initiative of South African Group NKPI Holdings in collaboration with the MTPA and EDB kicked off on Monday 27th March 2023 at Sugar Beach Resort, Flic-en-Flac, Mauritius.