On tour in Zimbabwe are thirteen Japanese students from the non-profit organization Millenium Promise Japan (MPJ), with interests ranging from politics and economy to history, culture, the environment, wildlife, and the arts and entertainment.
Following an engagement drive by the Zimbabwean Embassy to Japan, which resulted in a destination presentation at the Tokyo University of Foreign Languages in December 2023, they decided on Zimbabwe.
From March 2 to March 17, 2024, they will be in Zimbabwe, visiting Victoria Falls, Masvingo, Bulawayo, Hwange, and Harare and its environs. Zimbabwe represented by the Zimbabwe Embassy in Tokyo; Japan is facilitating this familiarization tour. They have a well-planned itinerary that includes visits to the majority of Zimbabwe’s top tourist destinations. Their daily experiences will be posted on Instagram, the X, and You Tube, three of the country’s most popular social media sites.
“Prior to their departure, a debriefing meeting has been scheduled for March 17, 2024, in Bulawayo, with the tourism minister, to discuss their experiences in greater detail. In order to attain the five billion tourism economy and the Vision 2030, we are pushing for tourism growth in terms of arrivals from the main global source markets, so this is definitely a positive development,” said the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority in a press statement.
Founded in April 2008, this non-profit organization with headquarters in Japan provides food and material aid, education, and disaster relief to nations that are impacted by natural disasters. This organization, which has supported the Millennium Villages Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa over the years, has about 80 members who are drawn from about ten universities in Japan.
This time, as a result of their membership, they are working with thirteen university students on research projects that have an African theme. When MPJ was founded, its primary goals were to reduce poverty in Africa and raise Japanese awareness of the continent. As a result, the organization’s projects are carried out under the motto “Study and disseminate about Africa,” which aligns perfectly with our primary tourism goal for this market, which is “to create awareness.”
Zimbabwe’s main tourism source market is Japan, and one of the main targets there is the youthful demographic, which has a lot of potential to influence more people there via social media.
