The Minister of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality industry, Prisca Mupfumira said tourism is a low hanging fruit from where communities can tap.
She was speaking at an interministerial meeting of states in the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) held in Victoria Falls on Thursday.
She also reminded members that the main goal is community transformation. Mupfumira said:
The focus of our efforts should be to transform the lives of the communities throughout the KAZA landscape, contribute to the socio-economic development of our nations as well as improve the conservation status of flora and fauna of the TFCA.
Mupfumira also mentioned that tourism sector’s current positive contributions to economies can be surpassed. She said:
Honourable Ministers, you all appreciate the current positive contributions tourism is making to our economies, in terms of foreign currency inflows, employment creation and contribution to our GDPs.
We need therefore to thrive not just to sustain such contributions at current levels, but to increase the same… I note that tourism is largely a low hanging fruit, thus our thrust should be two pronged, that is grow both international arrivals and domestic tourism so that the locals may also enjoy their God-given resources.
All this can only happen when we continue to look after our pristine wildlife and environment.
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