GOVERNMENT has registered more than 4 000 houses (a house in Harare pictured)that will be turned into lodges ahead of the 2010 World Cup soccer showcase in South Africa next year, a senior Govern-ment official has said.
This followed the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority’s approval of applications by some homeowners to turn their houses into lodges to complement hotel accommodation for soccer tourists expected in South Africa.
Zimbabwe needs a total of 10 000 beds for the World Cup showcase in South Africa.
In an interview, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Secretary Dr Sylvester Maunganidze said Government was expecting to approve more applications and ensure adequate accommodation for the football extravaganza.
He said Zimbabwe has seen an upsurge of in-bound tourists following concerted calls for the lifting of travel bans by the West and other countries.
The US, Germany and Japan early this year announced the lifting of travel warnings to Zimbabwe.
“South Africa is expecting more than half a million soccer fans during the 2010 World Cup and we are expecting that 130 000 of these tourists will be coming to Zimbabwe during that period.
“Hence it has become necessary to come up with mechanisms for Zimbabwe to provide comfortable accommodation.
“At the moment, we have registered more than 4 000 lodges after house owners applied to transform their houses into lodges.”
Dr Maunganidze said Government was working flat out
so that Zimbabwe benefits from the soccer tournament being held in Africa for the first time in its 80-year history.
“There are currently 19 Cabinet ministers working on our preparations for the World Cup tournament and the recent adoption of the South African team by the Zanu-PF National People’s Conference shows the political will by Zimbabwe to support their neighbours.
“We are ready to give the necessary human resources and expertise for the success of the historic tournament,” he said.
Dr Maunganidze said the recent successful tour of the World Cup Trophy and the Cosafa Senior Men’s Soccer tournament proved Zimbabwe’s readiness to make an impression.
“We recently hosted the World Cup Trophy tour where President Mugabe received the iconic trophy at the Harare International Airport.
“Before that we had held a very successful Cosafa tournament without any incident of insecurity and this shows that Zimbabwe is ready to play its part during the World Cup tournament,” he said.
Zimbabwe, Dr Maunganidze said, was taking advantage of its election into the United Nations World Tourism Organisation executive council in October, which is charged with executing the body’s policies and decisions through various programme and activities.
Government, through the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, authorised private residential property owners to convert their houses into lodges during the soccer tournament.
Five Bulls Travel Tours managing director Mr Tich Mudzonga, whose company was also given authority to register private properties as lodges, recently expressed confidence that the set target for accommodation would be met.
(herald)
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