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Kudakwashe Mhundwa Business Reporter —
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and Ethiopian Airlines will this year engage in joint marketing initiatives aimed at promoting Zimbabwe tourism in Spanish and Portuguese markets.

This was revealed by the Ethiopian Airlines area manager for Spain and Portugal Alemu Bekele during the official launch of the Victoria Falls-Madrid route in Spain recently.

“We are excited to be working with progressive destinations like Zimbabwe through the ZTA (Zimbabwe Tourism Authority).

“We see a lot of potential in the Madrid-Victoria Falls route so it is our undertaking to nurture and develop this route together with them. We are planning on having road shows and particularly in Spain and Portugal,” said Mr Bekele.

The Ethiopian Airlines will, from March 26, be flying into Victoria Falls four times a week and prospects of increasing its frequency are high according to Mr Bekele.

The deal has come amidst Zimbabwe’s hopes of leveraging on existing relations as well as forging strategic partnerships in Madrid.

Speaking at the same occasion the Chief Executive officer of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority Mr Karikoga Kaseke expressed gratification at how Ethiopian Airlines has continued to respond to the aspirations of Zimbabwe tourism.

“Ethiopian Airlines have consistently supported us and always been forthcoming to our calls for close collaboration in the areas of joint marketing and promotion.

“We are optimistic that close cooperation will yield more results for mutual benefit. So this year we will fully implement the MoU we signed with them. It is our wish to expand this collaboration to cover other markets in the entire Europe and beyond,” said Mr Kaseke.

Apart from the Spanish and Portuguese routes Tourists and vacationers coming from other big cities in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa will reach Victoria Falls via the hub in Addis Ababa.

This follows the commissioning last year of Victoria Falls’ new state of the art Airport which was constructed to make sure that tourists would fly directly into the number one tourist destination.

The ZTA boss added that apart from Ethiopian Airlines there are other Airlines that have expressed interest in flying into the resort town of Victoria Falls.

“A number of Airlines have shown interest in flying into Victoria Falls and as Government we will continue to court more airlines because we want to see the full utilisation of the recently upgraded and commissioned Victoria Falls International Airport.

“It has untapped potential to become a hub of air traffic in the sub region,” Mr Kaseke has said

The ZTA and Ethiopian Airlines signed a Memorandum of Understanding for joint marketing and cooperation last year.