Zimbabwe bagged the ‘best’ tourism destination 2014 award presented by The European Union (EU) tourism council. The EU also declared Zimbabwe as the Favorite Cultural destination for 2014 praising ZANU PF and Robert Mugabe for turning out the local industry into a ‘well managed powerhouse’.
European Council on Tourism and Trade (ECTT) based, The General Assembly of the Bucharest announced that Zimbabwe was to be awarded the World Best Tourism Destination Award for 2014.
As per the council the reasons for the award are growth in eco-tourism, preservation of Natural wonders, and the successful hosting of UN World Tourism conference in Victoria Falls last year.
The council praised ZANU PF Minister Walter Mzembi for Zimbabwe’s tourism industry, and stated that Mugabe, who as per the council is “the most outstanding personality of today Africa.” would be presented the award in Harare.
ZANU PF and Mugabe though accused of undermining efforts of turning the country’s tourism potential into a real success were praised by the EU which landed the group with criticism.
The Chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF), Johnny Rodrigues slammed the award as’ “a joke”.
As per Rodrigues, “It’s just one hell of a big joke when everything is in turmoil. Even at the UN conference, they transported animals to the area from a different area, and it was just a false picture. It’s not like that in reality,” “It’s frustrating because (Zimbabwe) is supposed to be the jewel of Africa, but it’s not. There’s so much false propaganda that goes with this and it’s not showing the true picture of what has actually happened.”
Just weeks after a highly disputed election saw ZANU PF reclaim power; The UN faced international condemnation for allowing Zimbabwe to host the Tourism conference.
The EU’s tourism award was likely part of ongoing efforts by Brussels to re-engage with ZANU PF said Rose Benton, from the London based protest group the Zimbabwe Vigil, on Wednesday. Rose told SW Radio Africa that the tourism council was “sanctioning an illegal government.” She said, “It is rather sickening that they are praising ZANU PF and Robert Mugabe in this way, especially since Mugabe is responsible for so much hardship of Zimbabwe’s people.”
Meanwhile, Tourism and conservation efforts in the country are being undermined by numerous issues, which include the takeover of conservation land by ZANU PF officials and an ongoing poaching crisis. Since then, the US wildlife authority issued a ban on the import of hunted elephant trophies from Zimbabwe, with the unlawful allocation of hunting licenses, questionable management practices and a lack of effective law enforcement, being pegged as the major factor in this decision.
In 2012, hunting permits were issued by National Parks to 25 so-called indigenous ‘farmers’ who were given land in the wildlife-rich Save Valley Conservancy. It was said to be part of the government’s ‘wildlife based land reform’ exercise, saying beneficiaries have been allocated 25-year land leases in conservancies throughout the Masvingo province.
The ban also comes back of the poaching crisis which hit Hwange National Park last year, where hundreds of elephants were killed by poachers using deadly cyanide chemical. At the same time, there’s a new threat to Zimbabwe’s protected Presidential Elephant Herd, following the takeover of a piece of land in Hwang that serves as the herd’s home range.
That takeover defies a Cabinet directive from last year that the land was ‘state owned’ and all offer letters for it must be withdrawn. Meanwhile Conservation groups have raised concern for the safety of the Presidential elephants, as the woman who has claimed the land is related to a local hunting operator.
