The Sunday Mail
Desire Ncube
Religion Reporter
GOVERNMENT is committed to supporting religious groups so that they can fully contribute towards religious tourism and generate some revenue for the country, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Engineer Walter Mzembi has said.
He said religious groups have the capacity to boost tourism through commercial activities that ride at the back of religious gatherings.
Statistics show that over 300 million people worldwide visit religious sites every year and 30 percent of the world’s traveling people are motivated by faith and religion.
Zimbabwe has several popular religious places that include the Mutemwa Mountain and the Bernard Muzeki Shrine in Mashonaland East province among others, where thousands of people visit annually for spiritual rebirth, leisure and fellowship. The Njelele Shrine in Matobo Hills, Matabeleland South Province is visited by traditional leaders for rain making ceremonies.
The Minister lauded churches for being organised, saying he would facilitate the growth of religious tourism under the National Tourism Policy.
The Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry has envisaged religious tourism as one of the draw cards for domestic and regional tourists.
“It has been so since time immemorial, we are not surprised therefore that as the conduct of human life becomes more and more complex in the globalised world, our people have not wasted time before making religion a very important aspect of their life.
“We are encouraging religious groups to put up infrastructure that will cater for tourists to their churches.
“These should be duly registered and graded by the relevant authorities – catering services, transport services and religious paraphernalia shops – religious organisations should provide all of these.
“Where they cannot afford they can enter into partnerships with capable corporates with the objectives of contributing to tourism receipts and the creation of employment among local communities,” he said. Minister Mzembi added that religion promotes peace and harmony with spiritual well-being considered as an integral part of people’s way of life.
“Through my ministry, Government has been endorsing some of the religious groups’ facilities such as the Celebration Centre (in Borrowdale, Harare) and Zion Christian Church (Mbungo in Masvingo) to be tourism attractions, an initiative that encourages these religious groups to contribute towards religious tourism.
“We have also proposed that those religious groups running conferencing facilities, chalets and lodges, restaurants and vehicle renting be taxed so that they can contribute significantly towards religious tourism.
“The there are rebates for those groups buying tourism materials from outside the country to be exempted from paying import duty – an initiative which would encourage these religious groups to venture into tourism-related business which will enable these groups to contribute significantly towards religious tourism,” Minister Mzembi said. He said religious groups have shown a keen interest in religious tourism as evidenced by the successful hosting of international events, including the 2014 Jehovah’s Witness General Conference that attracted about 82 000 delegates from across the world. “Prophetic Healing Deliverance (PHD) Ministries last month attracted a record of 350 000 attendees at their Waterfalls base.
“To support this, Methodist Church approached me with intentions to host the 2024 Global Methodist General Conference here in Zimbabwe,” he said. The recently held month-long Harare International Carnival also reflected well on religious tourism.“This will improve Zimbabwe’s religious tourism awareness and endorsement.
“As the United Nations World Tourism Organisation UNWTO regional commission for Africa chairman, I envision the embrace of ‘E-Revolution’ technologies on our borders (E-borders, E-Passports and E-Visas). “The vision is to see African countries score higher on the “openness to tourism” scale, a situation that will certainly augur well for the development of religious tourism in Zimbabwe.”
“We are promoting Zimbabwe as a MICE (Meeting-Incentives-Conference-Exhibition) destination, which is capable of holding international conference meetings and exhibitions.
“This can help promote religious tourism as we have the capacity to accommodate more tourists.”
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