The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority is participating at the Tourism EXPO Japan which kicked off Thursday and will run until 25 September 2022. 

Tourism Expo Japan is organised by the Japan Travel and Tourism Association, Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) and Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO.)

This is a prestigious travel trade event attended by key tourism players from the world over.

This year’s theme ‘Taking on the New Era’’; offers Zimbabwe an opportune moment to reactivate tourism and create demand for Zimbabwe as the world reopens. 

The Chief Executive of the ZTA, Winnie Muchanyuka, has confirmed Zimbabwe’s presence at the Expo with the key objective being to increase tourist traffic from Japan.

In 2018, Zimbabwe received a total of 34 214 tourists signalling a great potential that the Japan market has.

“There is need to intensify our marketing efforts through active participation at Fairs such as these as they generate travel interest for our destination thereby regaining the market share that was lost during the Covid-19 period,” remarked Muchanyuka.

Tourism Expo Japan is one of the leading travel shows on the Asian calendar that offers both B2B and B2C networking opportunities targeting Asia’s leading travel trade and consumer outbound travel operators.

The fair was last held in 2019 and it attracted 1 500 companies from over 100 countries and a total of 250 000 visitors.

A total of 12 countries from the Southern region will exhibit under the SADC banner and these include Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malawi, Botswana, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Mozambique, Mauritius, Angola and Tanzania.

It is exhilarating to note that Zimbabwe is set to attend this year’s edition of Tourism Expo Japan in a much bigger way.