Zimbabwe will soon host the United Nations Tourism Africa Gastronomy Conference. This will be the first-ever conference by the nation and will seek to ride and benefit from the country’s First Lady – Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa. Zimbabwe’s First Lady has initiated the campaign to promote the consumption of indigenous foods or meals that are acclaimed for their numerous health benefits.
With the conference, the country desires to attract visitors from across the world of travel and business tourism, leveraging new developments in facilities and products.
As per the sources, the Africa Gastronomy Tourism Conference is scheduled to held in popular city of the nation ‘Victoria Falls’ between the month of June and July this year. Zimbabwe has recently got this opportunity to host the first-ever event in Africa.
The great initiative by the First Lady will consider several hotel facilities which are constructed in the resort city and are expected to help reduce the country’s room deficiency which is worth of over $2,500.
Along with this, the tourism industry is busy in modernizing some tourism activities and is adding up new products to gastronomy tourism.
Considering the upcoming conference Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Barbara Rwodzi posted on her ‘X’ (formerly known as twitter) and said, “The First Lady’s relentless drive to promote gastronomy or culinary tourism locally and without the country’s borders is now paying dividends for Zimbabwe as the impending inaugural Africa food tourism conference set to be hosted by the country will further stimulate the growth of the tourism industry.”
Minister Barbara Rwodzi praised the First Lady for her vision and foresight to champion gastronomy tourism around 2019 for which she was recognized by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), for her work.
While appreciating Dr Auxillia, Mnangagwa said that the First Lady is indeed a visionary, having first started promoting gastronomy tourism in Zimbabwe in 2019. Rwodzi added that Mnangagwa started moving around the country promoting local dishes with that drive temporarily stopped by the COVID-19 hiatus in 2020 and 2021.
“However, after a lull in Covid, the First Lady started her campaign again from 2022 and 2023,” said Rwodzi.
The Tourism Minister also mentioned that the country hosted the SADC regional cookout competition, which was held in Masvingo on Africa Day.