Source: Tourism travel agents urged to be compliant | Sunday News (Business)
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
TOURISTS and travellers have been urged to deal with registered tourism travel agents. In addition, tourism travel agents must be registered with the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) and the Association of Zimbabwe Travel Agents (AZTA).
In a tourism updates news, ZTA acting chief executive officer Mr Givemore Chidzidzi said they recently had a fruitful discussion with AZTA.
“Our meeting with AZTA went well, with them being one of the specialised sub sectors in the tourism industry and it’s part of our ongoing efforts to stay close to our industry.
They had some issues that they wanted to discuss with us as ZTA that affect the operations of their membership,” said Mr Chidzidzi.
He said they discussed several issues that are of mutual benefit, dealing with their promotional activities and how they operate. AZTA chairperson, Mrs Mercy Madevhani said they advise consumers to deal with registered travel agents.
“A registered travel agent is one that has membership with both AZTA and ZTA. The issue is we are regulated, we are not bogus, so are our members.
We operate according to professional set standards and if any one member of our association is found to be errant, we are able to follow them up and say this is not the way you deal with clients,” she said.
She said as the tourism industry was picking up following the disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic, their aim was to work with ZTA to market the country.
Meanwhile, the second edition of the Tourism Innovation Challenge is now open for submissions. ZTA said they were looking for sustainable, disruptive and innovative projects for Zimbabwe’s Tourism Sector.
“Selected projects will take part in a mentorship and incubation programme with industry leaders, where the overall best project will receive seed funding.
The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic has adversely affected the conventional business model requiring businesses to make use of technology and other innovative ideas to stay relevant in the current environment,” said ZTA.