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Zimbabwe's massive tourism marketing program is beginning to bear fruit as tourist arrivals continue to increase to record levels, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) has said.

 

For the first nine months of the year the country has already recorded a 45 percent increase in tourist arrivals compared to the same period in 2005, according to the state news agency New Ziana on Sunday.

 

This massive increase surpasses the total number of tourists that visited the country last year, the news agency quoted the authority's chief executive officer Karikoga Kaseke as saying.

 

Kaseke said these signs of recovery should propel the industry to work together and attract more tourists into the country.

 

He said emphasis must be challenged towards new markets and other traditional markets such as the United Kingdom and France where arrivals were on a constant decline.

 

"American and European tourists are slowly regaining interest in our country," he said, adding that arrivals from America increased by 26 percent while the latter recorded a 100 percent increase in tourist arrivals during the first nine months of 2006.

 

Germany alone recorded a 70 percent increase in spite of the portrayal of Zimbabwe as an unsafe tourist destination.

 

In the period under review, the two traditional markets recorded declines in tourist arrivals, Kaseke said, adding that cooperation among industry players, especially now that the country's efforts were beginning to bear fruit, would help in the turnaround strategy and put Zimbabwe back in its rightful position in world tourism. Zimbabwe, in its bid to attract tourists in the wake of negative international media coverage, has intensified its massive marketing drive to lure tourists.

 

Tourism attaches have been posted to new markets such as China while numerous travel industry and foreign media tours have been arranged to correct the misconception most visitors have about the country. Last year about 1.5 million tourists visited the country compared to 1.6 million that toured Zimbabwe in the first nine months of 2006.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2006)