By Tendai Guvamombe
The Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry Tongai Mnangagwa has said the Government is determined to support young people to upscale their various tourism initiatives in the country.
Mnangagwa made the remarks while addressing many young people at the Harare Province Tourism Innovation Challenge Prize Giving Ceremony held on Tuesday in Harare.
Speaking during the engagement he said, “Our Tourism Development Agenda among other priorities seek to encourage the participation and involvement of the marginalized groups of our society such as youths through out the tourism value chain. Regarding the Youths, our ultimate goal is to see them becoming more increasingly involved in tourism through among others the development of innovative and disruptive projects which can be transformed into successful tourism enterprises. Government support will result in the youth taking ownership and being empowered through a deliberate tourism enterprises incubation programme.”
He also commended The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority(ZTA) for making strides towards a meaningful inclusion of young people in the tourism programming and discourse.
“I therefore commemd The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority for reasserting right step towards the involvement of the youth in Tourism discourse.”
In addition, the tourism youth programmes are projected to stimulate economic growth and simultaneously helping in the fight against drug abuse and harmful practices.
” The programme also helps to remove the youth from the streets and encourage them to meaningly contribute towards national economic growth and development anchored on the country’s national blueprints in Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy 1 (2021-2025)as well as the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy which seek to achieve a US $5 Billion Tourism Economy by 2025,” he added.
