ZimParks Spokesperson Luckmore Safuli
BY MUNYARADZI BLESSING DOMA in MASVINGO
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) says promoting tourism circuits across the country, will help increase visitor stay and generate more revenue from tourism.
Tourism circuits are routes that connect several tourism destinations and attractions in one travel journey, instead of promoting or visiting just one destination.
ZimParks spokesperson Luckmore Safuli, speaking at their Sanganai/Hlanganani Dzimbahwe 2026 World Tourism Expo stand, said the authority was using the event to showcase its tourism products, activities and investment opportunities in protected areas.
Safuli said Zimbabwe should move away from promoting individual tourism destinations and instead market different destinations 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 added that tourism circuits would allow tourists to visit a number of 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.
“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 increased visitor stay would result in more 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 further revealed that communities living alongside wildlife should also 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.”
He said the different tourism routes also presented investment opportunities which investors could explore.
Safuli said ZimParks was also using the tourism expo to engage potential investors and tourism buyers.
