A visiting delegation of the Organization of the Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) on Monday urged the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and stakeholders to engage in joint tourism marketing programs.

 

Spokesperson for the OECS delegation Milton Lawrence said the tourism authorities could jointly market Zimbabwe with Caribbean states, adding that Zimbabwe and the Caribbean countries could come up with initiatives of selling tourism packages.

 

He said there was need to move away from concentration on marketing Zimbabwe as a whole and engage in specific destination marketing.

 

Zimbabwe's tourism sector contributes about six percent to the gross domestic product and about 10 percent of total foreign currency earnings of the country. At its peak six years ago, the sector accounted for eight percent of gross domestic product, 12.5 percent of formal employment and about 11 percent of foreign exchange earnings.

 

The OECS delegation arrived in the country on Sunday to discuss investment opportunities. The delegation is mainly targeting sectors such as tourism, manufacturing, textiles, mining, arts and craft and the financial sector.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2007)