Air Namibia resumes flights to Zimbabwe!

National flag Carrier of Namibia- Air Namibia is all set to restart its much-awaited flights to Zimbabwe on May 16 and will be flying into the Zimbabwe four times a week.

Air Namibia stopped flying to Zimbabwe route 13 years ago, plans to use a 37-seater — in one-class configuration — all-economy plane for the Windhoek and Harare route.

Mr. Paul Homateni Nakawa said preparations for the relaunch,
“I confirm on behalf of Air Namibia that our first flight will fly to Harare, Zimbabwe, on 16th May 2012,” he said.

“Officially, these new routes are starting on the 15th of May 2012.

“Air Namibia will be starting its flights to Zimbabwe on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday every week; hence our first flights to Harare shall only be on the 16th May 2012, as per the flight schedule.”

Air Namibia’s re-entry comes two months after Emirates, one of the world’s fastest growing international airlines, resumed services to the country.

Emirates Airlines currently serves 19 passenger and cargo destinations across the African continent.

Several international airlines, including Egypt Air, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa and Quantas, stopped flights to Zimbabwe because of dwindling passenger numbers as tourists were scared off by political violence and instability.

Regional airlines like Air Malawi, Kenya Airways and South African Airways are still flying to Zimbabwe.

The Namibian airline has also launched two other regional routes — Ondjiva (Angola) and Gaborone (Botswana). In addition to its growth and expansion plans, the airline hopes to become an independent profit-making entity by the end of 2016.

Botswana has called for joint tourism ventures with Zambia

Botswana has called for joint marketing ventures with Zambia aimed at developing and boosting tourist arrivals in both countries
Botswana Tourism marketing executive-local and African markets, Tshepiso Mphele said it was important for the two countries to work together so that tourists visiting both countries would enjoy the peace.
In an interview in Lusaka, Ms Mphele said Botswana Tourism stands ready to work with the Zambia Tourism Board (ZTB) in promoting tourism packages that could be beneficial to both parties adding that maintaining peace and harmony between the two countries was critical.
"Our interest as Botswana Tourism is to maintain peace and harmony and to develop joint marketing ventures in the two countries," she said
Ms Mphele said their aim of visiting Zambia was to develop joint marketing ventures between the two countries.now people can book cheap flights to Botswana via Zambia as well.
She said Botswana Tourism offered complimentary products and services for attraction that Zambian people would enjoy when they visited the country.
Ms Mpele said her country had recorded a high number of tourists coming from Zambia visiting her country for business and leisure in the past few years up to now, a situation which she would want to continue even in future.

China funds US$164m to Victoria Falls airport upgrade

China has agreed to provide US$164 million for the refurbishment of the airport at Victoria Falls, the country’s premier tourism resort.
The deal is part of an US$180 million aid package endorsed by Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu who visited Zimbabwe this week.
The package includes US$12.7 million grant on economic and technical cooperation as well as US$5 million to help the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation acquire outside broadcast equipment.
"The cooperation between Zimbabwe and China has been seen in the construction of the Victoria Falls Airport and runway that we are going to use next year when we host the United Nations World Tourism Organization General Assembly and the Agricultural Demonstration Center launched today," Vice President Joice Mujuru said.
Zimbabwe is looking to upgrade its dilapidated airports infrastructure to support the country’s resurgent tourism industry. Apart from Victoria Falls, the government is also rebuilding Bulawayo’s Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport.
The tourism sector has registered significant growth in recent years, resulting in some of the world’s major carriers, among them Dubai-based Emirates, launch flights to Zimbabwe.
Tourism Minister, Walter Mzembi recently said tourism had overtaken agriculture to become the second largest contributor to Gross Domestic Product after mining.
The sector’s contribution to GDP was expected to rise from 9 percent last year to 15 percent with tourist arrivals doubling to 5 million by 2015.

Zambia Tourism Board (ZTB): More Tourists Visiting in 2011

Zambia Tourism Board (ZTB) has said 906,417 tourists visited the country in 2011 compared to 815,000 arrivals recorded in 2010.
The tourism board will this year spend about K9.8 billion on marketing aimed at attracting local and foreign tourists to meet the targeted one million visitors.
ZTB marketing director Evans Muhanga said the current estimated figures for 2011 indicated that Zambia attracted 906,417 tourists, higher than the number attained in 2010.
In 2010, ZTB recorded 815,000 arrivals compared to 906,417 achieved last year when ZTB rebranded to 'Let's Explore', meant to attract more tourists and create an environment that ensures an equitable balance between development needs of the country and an investment climate for wealth creation.
In an interview in Lusaka, Mr Muhanga said the board was on course to attracting the one million tourists by the end of this year.
"We are still cleaning up the figures for 2011 and 906,417 tourists for 2011 is an estimate," he said.
Recently, Mr Muhanga outlined the 2012 marketing plan with the total budget for marketing activities pegged at K9.8 billion, of which K3.7 billion would be channelled to promoting domestic tourism and K4.9 billion for international marketing.
The overall marketing objectives were to attain one million tourist arrivals by the end of 2012, increase tourists' duration of stay from an average three days to seven days and attain tourism sector Gross Domestic Product contribution of 10 per cent per annum, from the current seven per cent.
The ZTB 2012 marketing strategy will focus on maintaining the traditional source markets for tourists, expanding and developing new emerging markets, growing the domestic market and attracting more tourists to Zambia to meet the target.

Air Botswana opens regional routes!

Gaborone - The Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana (CAAB) has said it is opening Botswana’s skies by approving more flights by regional airlines in and out of the country.

CAAB granted Air Botswana, Air Namibia and South African Airways Airlink increased frequency of inward and outward flights to Botswana and flights to Namibia and flights to South Africa.

Starting June 2012, there will be a Johannesburg-Maun-Johannesburg flight seven times per week by SAA Airlink.

CAAB also announced approval of Air Namibia to fly into Gaborone from Windhoek thrice weekly (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) on top of the already operational Windhoek-Maun route.

The new route starts May 15.

In addition, the Aeronautical Authority of South Africa has approved Air Botswana to have three flights weekly between Maun and Cape Town. These should start on June 1. Air Botswana presently flies to Lusaka, Johannesburg and Harare.
CAAB spokesperson, Modipe Nkwe, said direct connections to Botswana would reduce inconveniences to passengers who currently have to connect through other cities. Nkwe said international visitors headed to Maun more than other parts of Botswana.

Official statistics indicate Maun Airport is one of the busiest in the region and it is undergoing refurbishment, as it is the gateway to one of the biggest deltas in the world; the Okavango Delta – a prime tourism destination.    CAAB expanded the Maun Airport runway to allow bigger craft, such as the Boeing 737, to use the facility. Air Botswana’s GM, Sakhile Reiling, said the changes were part of the airline’s turnaround strategy.

“Firstly, we must get compliance and staffing qualification levels sorted out. Secondly, in line with our expansion, work on infrastructure will need to be done in terms of machinery such as aircraft and equipment.”

The Botswana are considered among the region's worst in welcoming tourists according to a new report.

Botswana tourism industry is the worst in the region in terms of receiving tourists, a Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (Retosa) study shows.

The southern African country is globally celebrated as one of the best for wildlife tourism, but the latest Retosa study claims that Batswana (people of Botswana) are hostile towards visitors.

And Environment, Wildlife and Tourism minister Kitso Mokaila fears the finding on hospitality may ruin Botswana’s tourism industry which is a major contributor to the country's GDP.

Mr Mokaila attended a Retosa convention in Mauritius recently and has said it is critical to educate citizens on the significance of tourism.

"Botswana was considered the worst when it comes to accepting or welcoming tourists in the country though we are probably the best when it comes to policies,” said Mr Mokaila.

The study centred on those who meet tourists when they arrive in the country, such as taxi drivers, cleaners and other tourism service providers like hotel employees.

The minister reckons the challenge stems from a lack of understanding about the importance of tourism among citizens and believes Botswana educating  on how to interact with holiday-makers could make a huge difference.

Mr Mokaila is convinced it is time to invest further into the tourism industry as indications are that current mainstay resources like diamonds may wane in future.

Two years ago when South Africa hosted the soccer World Cup, Botswana failed to reap the benefits despite its proximity to the continent’s first time hosts.
Botswana have exotic places to explore,  its is landlocked in Southern Africa, and visiting Botswana you can also view the other African destinations such as Zambia and Zimbabwe where you can meet the world wonders Victoria falls, book your cheap flights to Botswana, and reserve the best safri with flights master.

two more airlines will soon land at the Harare: Said Marah Hativagone

Two more national airlines will soon land at the Harare International Airport, says the Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Tourism Association (ZTA), Marah Hativagone.
Hativagone, who is also Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA), said: "Air Namibia is talking to us to re-engage with us again after many years of absence.
"The natioanl airline of Tanzania is also talking to us and we hope they will land here anytime soon. As you probably know that Emirates Airlines has already started its cheap flights to Zimbabwe and this brings about three new players in the tourism industry."
She said, however, four new airlines would not be enough for Zimbabwe's tourism industry which is picking up.
Hativagone said the new five star hotels scheduled to be built near the National Sports Stadium project would continue despite the strong opposition from the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), who have come out strongly against the project.
Zimbabwe's tourism industry is improving judging by the latest figures from the ZTA.
The President of the Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ), Tichaona Hwingwiri, said his association is pleased with the upward trend within travel and tourism in the past two years.
He said, however, Zimbabwe still had "much more ground to cover for it to enjoy the number of international tourist arrivals of the boom period of the 1990s".
"A great many factors still act as obstacles to a full and unimpeded progress towards tourism growth and development, among which is the domestic air service situation," Hwingwiri recently said in an exclusive interview.
"Domestic tourism has been slow particularly in areas such as the Eastern Highlands, Kariba, Great Zimbabwe and the Bulawayo area but continues to grow in destinations such as Harare and Victoria Falls.
"It is hoped that all obstacles to tourism growth can be identified and removed and HAZ remains keen to work with other partners such as the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), the Zimbabwe Council for Tourism (ZCT) and others in this regard."
Zimbabwe's tourism industry used to very active before the controversial Land Resettlement Programme (LRP) began in 2000.
The Minister of the Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Engineer Walter Mzembi, has said he too is pleased with the industry's progress especially the fact that Zimbabwe is expected to host the World Tourism Fair in October 2012 this year. Zimbabwe will share this prestigious event with neighbors, Zambia.