By MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA –
THE Zambia Travel Expo (ZATEX) 2015 opens on Thursday this week with more than 1,500 tourists expected to attend.
The Zambia Tourism Board (ZTB) organised Travel Expo will run from Thursday to Saturday at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka.
And a total of 45 top buyers from Africa and Europe were expected to attend the ZATEX 2015.
ZTB director marketing Mwabashike Nkulukusa said ZATEX aimed at marketing the country as a prime tourist destination in the sub-Saharan Africa.
Mr Nkulukusa said they planned to attract about 500 international tourist arrivals and not less than one thousand domestic tourists at the Zambia Travel Expo.
“We will attract about 500 international arrivals which will include exhibitors, international journalists and other travellers. Locally we hope to get not less than one thousand tourists to come for the ZATEX,” he said.
Mr Nkulukusa said during a press briefing in Lusaka yesterday that ZATEX would bring together buyers, exhibitors, the media and the general public to a live market place aimed at marketing Zambia as a preferred tourism destination.
“ZATEX will also be a networking platform for industry players in the regional and global tourism industry and most importantly. This is a platform for domestic marketing and capacity building for the Zambian tourism industry,” he said.
Mr Nkulukusa said pre-event workshops would be ahead of the Expo. These workshops were designed for capacity building in order to raise quality service delivery in the tourism, travel and hospitality industry.
Mr Nkulukusa said about 40 buyers had confirmed their participation and were coming from Tanzania, South Africa, France, Angola, Mozambique, Europe and Germany.
He said about 31 local exhibitors and five tourism boards from the regional were also expected to attend. And Proflight Zambia and Best Western Plus Lusaka Grand Hotel would be the main sponsors of the Zambia Travel Expo.
Best Western Plus Lusaka Grand Hotel managing director Hans Heuer said his hotel was committed to supporting the growth of the tourism sector in Zambia.