{"id":590,"date":"2007-09-09T01:53:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-09T07:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/?p=590"},"modified":"2007-09-09T01:53:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-09T07:53:00","slug":"zimbabwean-travel-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/2007\/09\/zimbabwean-travel-journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwean travel journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/span>he Zimbabwean tourist authority is looking to improve the country\u2019s image. So who does it turn to? PRs? Lobbyists? No, travel writers<\/a>. You know the kind of thing \u2014 \u201cX travelled to the Gulag Archipelago as a guest of StalinTours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Journalists to help market Zim tourism<\/p>\n

Fifteen European journalists, who are in the country on a weeklong familiarisation tour, are expected to help Zimbabwe tap into the lucrative European markets.<\/p>\n

The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority\u2019s marketing and communications director, Mr Givemore Chidzidzi, said recently the hosting of the journalists from one of Zimbabwe\u2019s leading tourist markets was part of the authority\u2019s perception management initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect to get more from the visit of the journalists who are drawn from Germany, Italy and Austria,\u201d said Mr Chidzidzi.<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe has also hosted scribes and opinion leaders from the United Kingdom, France, Malaysia, China and Singapore. <\/p>\n

Bianchin Marco, an Italian freelance journalist who is part of the 15-member group, says he intends to publish various articles on Zimbabwe in different magazines in his country.<\/p>\n

The group is touring the country\u2019s traditional destinations, including the Victoria Falls, Hwange, Matopos and Lake Chivero.<\/p>\n

A number of tourists from Europe \u2014 notably France and Germany \u2014 have shown great interest in Zimbabwe with most regarding the country as a beautiful and peaceful nation contrary to some Western reports.<\/p>\n

Last year Zimbabwe recorded a 100 percent increase in European arrivals, with France being a major contributor.<\/p>\n

Germany alone saw a 70 percent surge while American arrivals rose by 26 percent.<\/p>\n

Since 2000, Zimbabwe has suffered a decline in tourist arrivals as a result of a hostile stance adopted by the Western media following the land reform programme.<\/p>\n

At its peak in 1998, the tourism sector, which has a quick turnaround potential, accounted for eight percent of the country\u2019s gross domestic product and about 11 percent of the foreign currency earnings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the meantime, here\u2019s the latest<\/a> from Peta Thornycroft.<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe officially devalued its near-worthless currency again, moving to a rate of 30,000 Zimbabwe dollars to one American dollar, from the old rate of 250 per American dollar.<\/p>\n

Technically, the devaluation erases a system of multiple exchange rates set for exporters, government officials and sellers of foreign currency that had been devised to shore up the government’s dwindling foreign exchange reserves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She didn\u2019t travel to Zimbabwe as a guest…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Zimbabwean tourist authority is looking to improve the country\u2019s image. So who does it turn to? PRs? Lobbyists? No, travel writers. You know the kind of thing \u2014 \u201cX travelled to the Gulag Archipelago as a guest of StalinTours.\u201d Journalists to help market Zim tourism Fifteen European journalists, who are in the country on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}