The 2020 edition of the annual Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo will be held virtually due to COVID-19.
Sanganai/Hlanganani comes at a time when Zimbabwe has started opening its economy after more than four months of lockdown.
The lockdown was part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 which has claimed close to a million lives across the world.
According to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, Sanganai/Hlanganani will be held from 22nd to the 23rd of October.
The virtual edition offers online exhibition space, customised virtual booths, unlimited access to the Sanganai/Hlanganani virtual platform among other things.
Tourism is expected to lose a sizeable chunk of revenue from international tourists due to COVID-19 which forced many countries to close their borders and airspace.
In Zimbabwe, the tourism sector mainly depends on international tourists as most locals are not able to afford the prices charged.
According to UNWTO, China is the biggest contributor of outbound tourists to the world.
The Chinese are also top spenders among the tourists as they travel in groups.
Before the COVID-19, Zimbabwe was making efforts to try and lure more Chinese tourists to the country taking advantage of the cordial relations that exist between the two countries.
However, those efforts will not produce meaningful results in the short term as the Chinese are being resented upon owing to the way their country handled COVID-19.
In the absence of international arrivals, Harare has been forced to rely on unfamiliar local tourists.
This has seen the government trying to throw in a bit of incentive to players who are offering packages under the domestic tourism campaign.
It, however, remains to be seen if much will come from the campaign as Zimbabweans are trying to recover from months of lockdown which saw many getting salary cuts with other losing their jobs.
