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Zimbabwe: Country Impresses Russian Tour Operators
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 Published by the government of Zimbabwe |
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The Herald (Harare)
7 May 2008
Posted to the web 7 May 2008
Isdore Guvamombe
Harare
Top Russian tourist wholesaler, Ultra Travel, yesterday said it would bring in a batch of 400 tourists to Zimbabwe in September followed by batches of 50 tourists per week thereafter, after the company's director was fascinated by Zimbabwe's tourist attractions.
Speaking after a tour of Great Zimbabwe, Matopos National Park and the Victoria Falls yesterday, Ultra Travel managing director and head of the VIP Russian tour operators and agents Mr Mikhail Muraview, said he already had tourists awaiting for his approval of Zimbabwe as a tourist destination.
"I must say that after the tour I will bring 400 tourists first, followed by groups of 50 tourists per week because my colleagues and me have satisfied ourselves that there are attractions that were a must see for tourists. "I had never seen the Zimbabwean side of the Victoria Falls because we were made to believe that the falls were in Zambia. The other time we went to Zambia but saw very littel of the falls compared to what we saw.
"We were also told that Zimbabwe was not safe but Russians are risk takers that is why we came here to see for ourselves and we have seen that Zimbabwe is peaceful and good for Russian tourists," said Mr Muraview. Mr Muraview said the group of VIP Russian tour operators and agents currently touring Zimbabwe, had extended its stay in the Victoria Falls by another day after it occurred to them that it was the hub of Zimbabwe's tourism tapestries. "We were supposed to fly to Harare on Friday and connect to Mozambique where we will stay briefly before going home but we will now go on Saturday so that we see more activities in Victoria Falls. "This place is excellent. We cannot just go before we see everything," he said.
Addressing journalists after meeting the delegation yesterday afternoon, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke said Zimbabwe had appointed Ultra Travel as its honorary ambassador in Eastern Europe and its neighbourhood. "The decision has already been taken after we saw their seriousness in Marketing Zimbabwe. They have brought this group and they have promised to bring more people and we are now finalising the finer details of the ambassadorial agreement otherwise everything is done.
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"As a norm, we do not pay our ambassadors but we give them the mandate to negotiate or handle matters on our behalf. We allow them to officially represent us and we know they are competent."
It is time we returned to Zimbabwe and published Africa Travel News in Russian. Your wife could be the editor. Instead of them paying for ads, we could have monthly holidays in Bulgaria. What do you think? Are you keen? Page three could appeal to ex-communist voyeurs -The Russian Bare page, full of nubile Shona girls out for a qwuick rouble/
This is fantastic news for Zimbabwe tourism. Perhaps it is the beginning of a renaissance.
Just like many countries have prospered from movie publicity, the growing Russian film industry could help Zimbabwe.
Russian directors could hire large parts of... [Read Full Text]
Hordes of Russian tourists to touch down in Zimbabwe? I think not. The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority is living in cloud cuckoo land. And as for the regime mouthpiece, is the Herald a rusepaper, a musepaper, a pusepaper, or simply a load of old cobblers. My Harare relative recently told me, with the chronic shortage of toilet paper, the Herald is much sought after as Zimbabwe’s favourite anal wipe.
When I googled Ultra Travel in Russia and its director Mikhail Muraview, neither were to be found. Amazing that one of Russia's top international travel organisations does not appear to exist. Interesting too that the Herald stated Muraview (not exactly a Russian sounding name) was Ultra's managing director when that particular corporate title is not common in Russia. This leaves two possible scenarios. Either (1) Muraview took the ZTA for a ride and had a great free tour around Zimbabwe or (2) the entire Herald article was a work of fiction.
THE HERALD IS THE PROPAGANDA MOUTHPIECE OF THE ZIMBABWE GOVERNMENT AND ARTICLES PUBLISHED BY IT SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN AS TRUTH
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