By Tendai Guvamombe
A group of 13 members of Millennium Promise Japan(MPJ) are currently in Zimbabwe for a familiarisation tour which will see them having a better appreciation of country’s finest tourist destinations.
The 13 member delegation are in Zimbabwe from 2 – 17 March and will visit Harare and its surroundings, Masvingo, Bulawayo, Hwange and Victoria Falls.
The group landed in Zimbabwe on Saturday afternoon and were welcomed by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) before talking to the local media.
The tour was facilitated by the Zimbabwean Embassy in Tokyo. MPJ is a a Japanese based Non-profit organization that was formed in April, 2008 and is involved in education, food and material assistance and disaster response to affected countries across the globe.
According to a Presser by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), the group comprises of members from 10 universities foccuses on research projects related to Africa.
“This is a Japanese based Non-profit organization that was formed in April, 2008 and is involved in education, food and material assistance and disaster response to affected countries across the globe. The organization that has approximately 80 members driven from about 10 Universities across Japan has been supporting the Millennium Villages Projects in Sub Saharan Africa over the years. This time through their membership they are collaborating with 13 University students who are focusing on research projects related to Africa. MPJ’s formation was mainly to alleviate poverty in Africa and to popularise the continent to the Japanese people hence the projects conducted under the motto to “Study and disseminate about Africa which resonates very well with one of our main tourism objective for this market to create awareness.”
The travelling students have interests in categories such as history and culture, politics, economics, environment, wildlife, arts and entertainment.
The group’s visit comes at a time when Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) recognise Japan as a tourism source market, hence the coming of the group is viewed as a success for the national tourism.
“The Zimbabwe Embassy’s engagement drive led to a destination presentation in December 2023 at the Tokyo University of Foreign languages. Japan is a key tourism source market for Zimbabwe and the Youthful segment is one of our major targets with great potential to influence a larger proportion through the social media network.”
