BY MUNYARADZI BLESSING DOMA in MASVINGO
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority says promoting tourism circuits across the country could help increase visitor stays and generate more revenue from tourism.
Tourism circuits are routes connecting several destinations and attractions into one travel journey, instead of promoting individual destinations in isolation.
ZimParks spokesperson Luckmore Safuli, speaking at the authority’s stand at the Sanganai/Hlanganani Dzimbahwe 2026 World Tourism Expo, said the event was being used to showcase its tourism products, activities and investment opportunities in protected areas.
Safuli said Zimbabwe needed to move away from promoting individual tourism destinations and instead market them as interconnected tourism circuits.
“Key message at ZimParks has been that we need to promote what we call tourism circuits.
“By this, we mean that we must move away from the tradition of selling individual destinations or individual parks.
“So we are saying that we need to promote tourism circuits,” said Safuli.
He said tourism circuits would allow tourists to visit several destinations during one trip, giving them more reasons to stay longer in the country.
“For example, we have what we call the Northern Circuit, where tourists can land in Victoria Falls, travel down to Mlibizi, to Binga, and connect to Kariba.
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“Along this route, there are different tourism activities that one can engage in. And that means that tourists can spend more days in our country.”
Safuli said longer visitor stays would result in increased revenue and a greater contribution to the country’s tourism earnings.
“And when they spend more days in our country, that means more revenue and increased contribution to the tourism earnings,” he said.
Safuli also said communities living alongside wildlife should benefit from the tourism and wildlife economy.
He said communities often bear the brunt of living with wildlife and should therefore be active participants in the wildlife economy.
“We strongly believe that for conservation to be more meaningful and to have more impact, it should have a human face.
“We are not leaving our communities behind and when you look at conservation, our communities are our biggest partners,” he said.
“We want them to be active participants in the wildlife economy. They should not be spectators.”
Safuli said the different tourism routes also presented investment opportunities that investors could explore.
He said ZimParks was using the tourism expo to engage potential investors and tourism buyers.
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