Cape Town, Vic Falls seal tourism twinning pact

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We are Victoria Falls Chairperson, Barbara Murasiranwa-Hughes

from DANIEL JONES in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Bureau
VICTORIA FALLS, (CAJ News) – CAPE Town and Victoria Falls have partnered to jointly market the two cities in the international markets.

The South African and Zimbabwean cities, respectively, boast globally-renowned natural wonders in Table Mountain and Victoria Falls waterfall, in that order.

They also have the United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA) as their main source markets internationally.

The partnership has been signed in Victoria Falls, coinciding with the launch of the Destination Management Partnership company spearheaded by the “We are Victoria Falls” initiative.

South Africa’s legislative capital city, Cape Town, and Zimbabwe’s tourism hub will market their products to attract and share long-haul clients.

Cape Town, which has a tourism strategy running for over four decades, has pledged to support Victoria Falls, attract more airlines and tourists, market the destination and share information.

“We have signed a partnership agreement with ‘We are Victoria Falls’ initiative so we can work together to market these two destinations which have two natural wonders of the world,” said Leigh Dawber, Cape Town Tourism Chief Marketing Officer.

She said tourists prefer a miscellaneous of cites and products, hence the twinning arrangement will help lure people for the shared ultimate African experience.

“We look forward to supporting the growth of the ‘We Are Victoria Falls’ initiative’,” Dawber added.

Cape Town has twinned with some European destinations previously. This is a first with an African destination.

Barbara Murasiranwa-Hughes, who chairs “We are Victoria Falls”, said the twinning is on its own a package for tourists and is going to increase arrivals.

“When we decided to form this destination management partnership we look (ed) around and we found Cape Town had 44 years into it. We really found that it would be the best city for us to work with,” she said.

Cape Town Tourism Chief Marketing Officer, Leigh Dawber

Cape Town Tourism Chief Marketing Officer, Leigh Dawber

Murasiranwa-Hughes, who is also Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe representative, said Victoria Falls will focus solely on the partnership with Cape Town but could explore other avenues if the Zimbabwean city doubled the number of airlines plying the route.

It is aiming for 20 airlines, the same number Cape Town currently has.

Tawanda Gusha, Airports Company of Zimbabwe (ACZ) Chief Executive, said Victoria Falls had less than ten airlines and hoped to increase access by tapping onto Cape Town’s experience.

Winne Muchanyuka, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) Chief Executive, also anticipates an increase in tourist arrivals following the partnership.

“The partnership with Cape Town is from a tourism perspective and the source markets that we tap into are the same and are all long-haul,” Muchanyuka said.

“When tourists come to this part of the world, they want to do several destinations and activities and Victoria Falls and Cape Town often come out in this itinerary and those visiting either of the two will proceed to the other,” she added.

In 2001, South Africa’s Limpopo province signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Matabeleland in Zimbabwe to cooperate in a number of economic sectors.

– CAJ News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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