Zimbabwe makes documentaries to lure Chinese tourists

Zimbabwe is trying to boost their tourism sector by making documentaries on the major tourism destinations, to be showcased in Chinese tourism market.

During his last visit to China, President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed a number of agreements with his Chinese counterpart, including a deal to film documentaries in Zimbabwe to be displayed in China.

As per the agreement Chinese firm Touchroad International will bring Zheing Zhiang TV and Radio into the country, to begin filming and photographing Zimbabwe’s key tourist destinations.

Zimbabwe has several world famous tourism destinations including Victoria Falls, Great Zimbabwe and Lake Kariba among others.

“The country has to recuperate the declined foreign tourists visit to the country, which was around 30 per cent of the total inbound tourists, now plunged to 20 per cent over the past years,” said Prisca Mupfumira , Tourism minister of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s tourism industry had been grim during the regime of Robert Mugabe, as per statistics form the tourism department. Currently the tourism industry is catching up with the other African nations. In 2017 Zimbabwe has hosted 2,422,930 tourists, which marks a 12 per cent increase from the previous year. But the country whose economy has struggled in the last decade will be keen to boost those numbers especially in a quest for foreign exchange.

Chinese travellers are known to be the world’s top tourism spenders. Considering this, Zimbabwe expects to bring more Chinese tourists to country, through the new initiative of creating documentaries to propagate the cultural and historical sites.