HARARE - Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi (Pictured)has admitted to lying to the nation that Zimbabwe was going to benefit immensely from the World Cup soccer showcase underway in the neighbouring South Africa.Before the start of the tournament we ran on a false line that we should host some of the teams participating in the World Cup. However, we have not seen the gesture as we had anticipated, Mzembi told a state-controlled weekly paper.
The over zealous Tourism minister and his tourism campaign manager, who is
the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority Chief Executive Karikoga Kaseke, after spending tax payers money touring international countries before the start of the World Cup told the nation that a number of teams were going to camp in the country.
Mzembi even went on to say the country was going to get at least 30 per cent of the tourists who would be visiting South Africa. In a desperate move to make good on his promises, he said he was going to send a delegation led by his permanent secretary Sylvester Maunganidze to South Africa to lure tourists from the eliminated teams.
The objective of this delegation is to make personal contact with potential tourists at the World Cup. The team has set up offices in South Africa, he told the same publication before adding that they were going to invite celebrities like Shakira and Akon to Zimbabwe during the same trip.
One of the countrys largest hotel operators, Rainbow Tourism Groups, Chief Executive, Chipo Mutasa, said the hospitality industry had not benefited at all from the on going World Cup soccer show case.
We have not yet got anything from the World Cup going on in South Africa besides the excitement we had when we hosted the Brazilian team. Our hotels remain unoccupied, said Mutasa.
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