NEW YORK — Extraordinary Journeys, the New York-based tour
operator and Africa specialist, on Friday staged a press event here to promote
its services in Zimbabwe while confronting the question — raised by some travel
professionals and customers — of whether tourists should travel to Zimbabwe at
all.
Extraordinary Journeys’ answer is a firm “yes.”
The tour operator said Zimbabwe's government “has actively
deterred travel in recent years, and even agencies and operators are actively
trying to boycott tourism in Zimbabwe today.”
Marcia Gordon, Extraordinary Journeys cofounder, said the
boycott question originated at her firm with a nonprofit “haranguing us,”
arguing against travel to Zimbabwe because of the government and, particularly,
the authoritarian president, Robert Mugabe.
“Clients wondered about this, too,” she added.
Although not all tour operators agree, Gordon said,
Extraordinary Journeys concluded that “the worst thing is to not go if you care
about Zimbabwe.”
Mark Homann, a Zimbabwe-born licensed private tour guide,
said that after Mugabe nationalized white-owned farms beginning in 2000,
tourism collapsed, costing an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 jobs.
That number is more important than it seems, he said,
because those workers would have been supporting 10 to 15 people each in their
extended families.
Lost jobs, he continued, translate into a smaller middle
class — and it becomes easier for Mugabe to control the people whereas a
tourism boycott doesn’t affect the president’s behavior at all, he added.
The animals need tourists, too. For one thing, the
government does not fund Zimbabwe’s national parks, Homann said. The parks have
to generate the income for maintenance and conservation, with tourism as one of
those income sources.
And, when jobs are connected to the wildlife, locals have
more interest in the animals’ wellbeing.
Homann pointed out that tourist safari camps are the source
of significant community funding in Zimbabwe; all of Singita’s earnings, for
example, go into conservation and community programs, he said.
In a presentation, Homann ticked off a list of attractions
that make Zimbabwe a good tourist destination — the full range of wildlife that
safari-takers seek, including a surprisingly good number of rhinos; Victoria
Falls; and Great Zimbabwe, a ruined city noted for its stone walls and size
(1,800 acres).
Then, Homann — married to an American and based in the U.S.
— told his audience that it was a pleasure to be touting the attractions of his
homeland. “It has been ignored for so long,” he said.