The Zimbabwean government is due to accord Zimbabwean musical icon Oliver Mtukudzi ambassadorial status with full diplomatic credentials in a bid to revive the county’s flagging tourism industry.
The hospitality industry has long lobbied for the popular musician to get the status of ambassador, said Karikoga Kaseke, CE of the state sponsored Zimbabwe Tourism Authority.
”We are planning to make him an ambassador in the proper sense. When we say you are a tourism ambassador, we really mean an ambassador where he will have that ambassadorial [diplomatic] passport. That process is going on. He has been recommended by the hospitality industry. We hope very soon we will be through with that pro- cess,” said Kaseke.
Mtukudzi said, ”I never thought they would go that far. I have been marketing the country as a tourism ambassador, but if that recognition can go to the extent of getting a diplomatic passport, that will be great,” he said.
Tourism was once the third-highest foreign currency earner after agriculture and mining. But the country’s battered image makes it a hard sell abroad as tourists shun the once prosperous Southern African country for neighbouring countries’ resorts. Annual income from tourism has dropped by about 70% over the past six years.