The 2022 edition of the Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism expo will be held physically in Bulawayo with 250 exhibitors expected to grace the event.
So far 150 exhibitors have already confirmed their participation.
The expo will be held at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, physically, on the 13-15th of October following its suspension for two years due to Covid-19.
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) Chief Executive, Winnie Muchanyuka said they are excited about hosting the expo in Bulawayo.
“The dates have been confirmed from the 13th to the 15th of October and I am very excited that we are meeting physically, the last time we met physically was in 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic did set in and we were not able to meet physically,” said Muchanyuka.
She said domestic tourism kept the industry afloat.
“We see that the numbers of International visitors coming to Zimbabwe are rising steadily but what is more exciting for me is the contribution that domestic tourism has made to the industry and has really kept us afloat as we waited for International travellers to start coming back and riding on domestic tourism is meetings, conferences, events and incentives and that has shown very positive results in the market.”
Muchanyuka said 150 exhibitors have been confirmed and they are aiming to have 250 exhibitors, “with the pace at which we are going we expect to reach, if not surpass that number of visitors.”
She said some International exhibitors are coming through from Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Malawi.
“Also, the special mention we can make is the contribution that we have received from Air Zimbabwe and from the Airports Company of Zimbabwe. Air Zimbabwe has facilitated tickets for our buyers to be able to go on these tours and be able to come through to Bulawayo and be at Sanganai. The Airports company has also helped us and are our platinum sponsor for this year, we really look forward to putting this together,” she said.
ZTA Head of Corporate Affairs, Godfrey Koti said they hope that this year’s expo is going to retain the financial gains and attract tourist numbers last recorded before the Covid-era.
“In 2020 our quantified loss was around a billion dollars in terms of financial receipts, we only made US$359 million during that period and that also opened up a little bit, so the total loss was about US$1.3billion between the two years in terms of expected revenue,” said Koti.
“In terms of tourists receipts, in 2019 we had closed the year on 2.3 million receipts as far as tourists are concerned and in 2021 we received about 600 000 visitors only, so we are definitely positioning Zimbabwe through the Sanganai/Hlanganani tourism expo,” he said.
