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By Wallace Mawire.

Harare. (News Of The South) – The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) has won the destination marketing of 2015 routes marketing award announced in June 2015 in the Kingdom of Bahrain, according to Walter Mzembi, Minister of Tourism and Hospitality.

Mzembi said that more than 350 professionals in the tourism industry who attended the 2015 Routes Middle East and Africa inaugural route development event in the kingdom witnessed the presentation of the award.

“The ZTA is very proud of this high achievement of being awarded the best tourism authority in the Middle East and Africa 2015 for the Best Destination Marketing Campaign. This award comes at a time when the ZTA is struggling to maintain market presence and visibility in all source markets of the world with very little resources. It confirms that ZTA has great potential to double its tourist arrivals and revenue within a short period of time if its marketing programmes are fully funded by government,” Minister Mzembi said.

According to Mzembi, the ZTA was shortlisted for the Routes Middle East and Africa Marketing awards in the destination category and invited to send a destination profile for consideration by an independent panel of judges from the airline network planning community.

Mzembi said that the ZTA submission highlighted the interventions employed by Zimbabwe to promote and reposition the country as a prime tourist destination.

“Emphasis was on innovative marketing and collaborative engagements with airlines, media and tourism boards,” said Mzembi.

The annual routes marketing awards are reported to be highly regarded as the most prestigious awards in the aviation network planning community. They are reported to provide the airline community with the chance to have their say as to which airport they think provides the best overall marketing services to them ensuring that the most effective campaigns are rewarded for their hard work and dedication to route development.

“This nomination provided the ZTA with great opportunity to gain credible recognition by its customers and stakeholders in all source markets,” Mzembi added.

This year there were four awards categories comprising of three airport categories split by size and a destination category for the best destination marketing campaign by a tourism authority.

Tourism authorities shortlisted included the Tourism Ministry of Egypt and Egyptian Tourist Authority, Tanzania Tourist Board, Jordan Tourism Board, Qatar Tourism Board and the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority.

According to Mzembi, the shortlisted destinations were invited to submit their respective destination profiles by 15 May 2015 for review by an independent judging panel consisting of senior airline representatives from across Africa and the Middle East.

The submissions were scored on a range of criteria such as evidence of relationships with airlines, innovative marketing and the overall results of the past calendar year.

Mzembi said that the winners of the Routes Middle East and Africa 2015 marketing awards were announced during the Routes Middle East and Africa networking evening on 1 June 2015 at the event in Bahrain and the overall winner was automatically shortlisted along with the winners of the other regional heats for the World Routes 2015 marketing awards which will be announced in Durban in September 2015.

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