China guns for mutual Visa exemption

CHINA’S Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Lin Lin believes that the cordial relations between Harare and Beijing are a key ingredient for forging a “mutual visa exemption” for travellers from the two countries.

China is presently in category “C” of the country’s visa regime and everyone from there processes their visas in one office in Beijing.

The Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, encouraged by the phenomenal increase in Chinese tourist arrivals, is lobbying for an upgrade to category “B” – visa on arrival – or the scraping of the regime altogether.

It is envisaged that reviewing the current visa regime with China, among other interventions, might help boost tourism receipts to US$5 billion by 2020.

Listed hotelier African Sun reported in its interim financials to March 31, 2014 that arrivals from Asia had jumped 25 percent compared to a year earlier.

There is a growing scramble for Chinese visitors across the globe as their spending and length of stay in their chosen destinations improves.

A report released last week by a United States-based group, the Global Business Travel Association, shows that business travel spending would reach a record US$1,2 trillion this year, up nearly 7 percent from 2013 – bolstered by growth in China.

The group expects China, where business travel spending grew to US$225 billion in 2013 from US$32 billion in 2000, to top the United States by 2016.

Ambassador Lin told The Sunday Mail Business that China had “no policy obstacle to sign the mutual visa exemption arrangement”, and that the embassy had mobilised a team of documentary experts to record a video promoting local tourism, especially Victoria Falls, which is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and Unesco World Heritage Site.

The documentary will be beamed to millions of Chinese viewers.

“China and Zimbabwe enjoy all-weather friendship. The Chinese government has no policy obstacle to sign the mutual visa exemption agreement for ordinary passport holders from our two countries with the Zimbabwean Government. The Chinese side has formally proposed to the Zimbabwean side about the mutual visa exemption. And we believe that the mutual visa exemption arrangement will be realised in the near future with the assistance of Ministry of Home Affairs in Zimbabwe . . .

“One of the important duties of the embassy is to promote the people-to-people exchanges between our two countries.

“We always encourage Chinese people to visit Zimbabwe. The world-famous Victoria Falls is one of the most popular destinations for Chinese tourists.

“For now, we are organising the best Chinese documentary team to shoot a documentary named ‘Glorious Zimbabwe’ which will be broadcast on China Central Television. Hundreds of millions of Chinese people will get a fresh impression of Zimbabwe on television. We are also encouraging several Chinese travel agencies to open travelling routes including Zimbabwe and other African countries,” said Ambassador Lin.

Expert researchers on the Chinese market opine that reaching out to potential travellers through their own social networks such as Baidu.com (the “Google of China”) and Sina Weibo (a microblogging site) is the ideal way of luring visitors.

Separately, Zimbabwe’s Tourism Ministry is also working on products for the Chinese market.

“The biggest product they want is honeymoon; they love going on honeymoon because it is a status symbol in China.

“So we want to transform Victoria Falls into a honeymoon park and ensure that we get about 10 planes coming to Victoria Falls from all provinces in China once the upgrade of the airport is completed, otherwise if we don’t get them, we will be joking.

“The Chinese also love small town tours and blue-sky photography. There is an increasing demand for in-depth travel but they don’t want to spend too much time on the road, they want food and entertainment.

“They also love shopping abroad especially for luxury European brands. We should put these products in our shops especially at Long Cheng Mall but at cheap prices.

“The current prices at Long Cheng Mall are too high and I have told the officials there that they have failed to market the place. Everyone now knows Long Cheng Mall as an expensive place,” said Engineer Walter Mzembi, the Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry.

Recently, Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said Government was ready to welcome Chinese tourists and visitors, while acting Secretary for Foreign Affairs Mr Albert Chimbindi added that negotiations were underway to relax the visa regime.

The negative publicity fanned by the fallout between Zimbabwe and Britain during the land reform programme that began in early 2000 generally cast Zimbabwe in bad light for more than a decade.

At the height of the West’s anti-Zimbabwe campaign, countries such as Germany, the UK and the United States issued negative travel advisories that have since been rescinded as the country has consistently proved to be a tourism destination of choice.

As a result, arrivals from the country’s traditional source markets in Europe and America have improved.