By REBECCA MUSHOTA –
A FRENCH company specialised in offering tour packages has expressed interest in partnering with the Zambian mission in France to help promote Zambia’s tourism potential in that country following overwhelming enquiries from people interested to travel to Zambia.
Founder and managing director of Loin de la Foule Voyages and Escapades Florence Aboulker said her company had been receiving overwhelming enquiries from people interested to travel to Zambia and explore the country’s tourism offerings.
Ms Aboulker said Zambia remained one of the perfect tourist destinations on the African continent for those tourists seeking for an authentic experience and travel to destinations that were not yet explored.
“My company has been focusing on destinations such as Botswana, Kenya, South Africa and Namibia. However, this year we have received overwhelming enquiries from many of our old and new clients interested to travel to Zambia, so I thought it wise to come and discuss with you on how best we can work together to promote and market the destination,” she said.
Ms Aboulker said this when she paid a courtesy call on Zambia’s Ambassador to France Humphrey Chibanda at the Zambian chancery in Paris, France.
And Ms Aboulker said her company’s research with other travel and tour companies based in France and specialised in Africa revealed that despite tourist destinations in Francophone North and West Africa being the traditional choice for many French tourists in the past few years, the trend was changing as evidenced by the travel shift to South-Central Africa, with Zambia becoming one of the top preferred destinations.
She said Zambia had an opportunity to attract more tourists from France and other European countries because it was centrally located, had a lot to offer and it is a peaceful country.
Ambassador Chibanda said the Mission in Paris was working in collaboration with the Zambia Tourism Agency (ZTA) to increase tourism promotional and marketing activities in France so as to ensure that the appropriate promotional materials in French were made available for the French market.
Ambassador Chibanda said that the mission was ready to collaborate with many partners especially travel and tour companies and the media in France to promote and market Zambia as a destination of choice for the French.