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Tendai Rupapa in DONOSTIA-SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain 

ZIMBABWE will from now on be included in United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) programmes and benefit from the body’s support programmes because of its commitment to tourism development, thanks to First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa’s hard work.

This emerged at a top-level meeting involving Dr Mnangagwa, UNWTO Secretary-General Mr Zurab Pololikashvili and the body’s director for Europe, Ms Alessandra Priante, on the sidelines of the ongoing 8th UNWTO World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism in Spain.

Amai Mnangagwa made history by becoming the first African First Lady to attend the UNWTO World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism where she was invited to deliver a speech in recognition of her massive support for gastronomy tourism.

Mr Pololikashvili acknowledged the work being spearheaded by Dr Mnangagwa, and described her as a leading African gastronomy champion. 

With diverse natural resources and an array of under-explored heritage sites, the UNWTO boss expressed willingness to put brand Zimbabwe and the African continent on the global tourism map.

In the meeting, they touched on a range of issues around tourism, mainly gastronomy tourism.

Tourism and Hospitality patron First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa during a meeting with UNWTO Secretary General Zurab Pololikashvili, UNWTO Director for Europe Alessandra Priante, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Barbra Rwodzi, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to France/Spain/ Portugal, The Vatican and UNWTO Mrs Abigail Shonhiwa Mr Emmanuel Zinyuke and University of Zimbabwe Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Mapfumo in Donostia San Sebastian, Spain, on Thursday.

Amai Mnangagwa, who is the country’s patron for Tourism and Hospitality, has passion in the field where back home she has been working with communities as part of an empowerment drive to boost economic development and job creation.

During the discussions, Mr Pololikashvili congratulated President Mnangagwa for winning resoundingly in the recently held elections and praised the country for holding smooth, democratic and quiet elections, which he said was a rarity on the African continent.

“You recently held elections and we saw that they were smooth, democratic and quiet elections which is not usual on the African continent,” he said.

“As from our side, you have our full support, we will support you and do all we can. 

“Count on our support. Starting from today we will always invite you to our conferences so that we support you for all you are doing for African gastronomy and African culture. Many thanks for your support. Gastronomy is part of culture.

“African gastronomy is not well presented outside the continent as it deserves so count on our support again. We are committed to help in branding Africa, to promote Africa as the future of tourism. 

“I really believe that the future of tourism is in Africa where it will create new jobs and tourism is the best way.” 

However, Mr Pololikashvili said achieving tourism growth was no mean task.

“I know that it’s not easy because to create jobs, countries first of all have to create strong infrastructure because without developed infrastructure, it would be difficult to invite tourists.” 

“But it’s a long-term project, nothing will happen in one day; nothing is easy and in methodologies, in guidelines we are investing a lot of our resources. “We will be next to you, to train the people because you can build many roads and many hotels but you finally need people there and we will be next to you and marketing is very important to promote Zimbabwe. We will be supporting you,” he said.

The First Lady spoke about her passion for tourism and hospitality.

“I am also a hotelier. I got my first degree in Switzerland so I have a lot of passion for what happens in the culinary field. I am happy that you have invited us, we are now on board and that you also now know what Zimbabwe is doing. We are trying very hard to go ‘Back to the Roots’. 

“We are taking everyone on board, not leaving anyone behind. We also have this problem of drug abuse. We are trying to bring in the youths and saying ‘you should know who you are and what you want to do in the future’. For them to know what they want and to shape their future, they need to be sober. We are also bringing the youths Back to the Roots. Without supporting the youths, we are a lost nation,” she said.

Tourism and Hospitality patron First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa shares a lighter moment with UNWTO Secretary-General Mr Zurab Pololikashvili, UNWTO Director for Europe Alessandra Priante, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Barbra Rwodzi, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to France/Spain/ Portugal, The Vatican and UNWTO Mrs Abigail Shonhiwa and Mr Emmanuel Zinyuke during their meeting in Donostia San Sebastian, Spain, on Thursday. — Pictures: John Manzongo.

The First Lady said the coming in of the new Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Barbra Rwodzi, would pave the way for growth, starting with communities mainly targeting women.

“I am happy that she is a woman and she understands other women. All that I was doing, working with women and chiefs’ wives in rural communities, I used to work with her when she was still the deputy minister, not knowing that she was going to be the Minister of Tourism. 

“She knows exactly where we started, where we are and what we want to achieve and it’s now easier for me to work with her and also to promote our position in UNWTO. 

“When we held our regional cookout competitions in May this year, UNWTO was represented and we saw different dishes from different countries. We saw the coming of new relationships and exchange of ideas. As Africa, we should promote our African cuisine,” she said. 

After the meeting, Mr Pololikashvili told journalists that he was gratified by the First Lady’s attendance at the forum since African cultures were not well represented lately.

“We invited Her Excellency the First Lady and she expressed her interest. It is very important because as I mentioned in my main speech this morning, African culture is not as well represented as it deserves outside the continent. These kinds of visits, like what the First Lady did and these kinds of activities, give Africa and the African continent more visibility, more possibilities to attract investors, to attract tourists, attract other kinds of support and it’s an honour and a pleasure to have the First Lady of Zimbabwe with us. Gastronomy also is a big part of culture. We think that African gastronomy has a lot of opportunities and space to do interesting projects and we agreed to promote and support Zimbabwe and African gastronomy worldwide,” he said. 

Attendance by the First Lady at the forum, said Mr Pololikashvili, opens a lot of opportunities to her and Zimbabwe at large.

“She is leading a historical moment for the region,” he said.

Ms Priante said her organisation felt honoured by Dr Mnangagwa’s presence at the forum.

“We are very honoured that the First Lady of Zimbabwe came. It’s the first time that we have a First lady attending one of our big forums. 

“We invited the First Lady of Zimbabwe and are very pleased that she accepted our invitation because she took time off her busy schedule and flew all the way from Zimbabwe to honour us with her presence and enlighten us with her words, her wisdom and set a fantastic example of how it should really be done not just in Africa but all over the world. 

“First of all, gastronomy, agriculture means traditions and culture. It means conservation but also looking into the future and today we are very inspired because in her speech she basically tackled everything. 

“She went from underlying the importance of women, driving this change and the empowerment efforts that are being done in Zimbabwe to leveraging the roots and the culture that is not just being taken forward in Zimbabwe but as an example for African culture. 

“And we understand that she wants to position Zimbabwe as a point of reference not just as an individual country but also point of reference on how it should be done in Africa and beyond when we are talking about driving rural development in the world in the right way. Earlier, Minister Rwodzi spoke about how important it was to drive gastronomy tourism for climate change and this is something that was also stressed by the First Lady, so once again we are grateful for having her with us,” she said.