Zimbabwe Tourism scooped International Award??

"Zimbabwe, now ranked Africa's fourth best tourist destination, scooped "The Best Country Image Promotion Award" at the maiden Guilin International Tourism Fair held in Guangxi province, China, recently, as the country's tourism and hospitality industry continues with its fairytale recovery.

The award comes at time when Zimbabwe has stepped up its marketing efforts and destination perception management across the globe through celebrity host programmes that have seen world acclaimed artiste perform in the country.

It also comes at a time when Zimbabwe is strengthening its market position in China which is set to become the world's number one tourist wholesaler by 2020 and whose outbound tourism market size will reach an estimated 100 million international departures."

For the death of me I do not know how this happened.  To be honest I wish it could be true.  Zimbabwe has wonderfull places for Tourists and specially the beautiful scenery and wild bush.  Lake Kariba and Vic Falls used to be known as the Riviera of Africa.  But alas, we all know what happened in Zimbabwe and the tourism industry (not to mention everything else) has been damaged by our friend Bob and his dogged stupidity. At the recent Tourism Indaba in Durban, I specifically looked for the Zimbabwe booth, as I really would like to encourage tourism in Zimbabwe.  And I did find them, but sooo little information was available.

Was the "award" given to Bob for his generous nature towards the Chinese Goverment in return for more money into his pocket, in order for the Chinese to set up more little "shops" in the every town you pass, selling the biggest rubbish.  And what about Zimbabwe's natural resources....China would just love getting their hands on that....so yes, I dont think this is a true reflection of the state of the Tourism Industry in Zimbabwe at the moment. 

I absolute adore the bit about "their fairytale recovery" .  Does China even know what is going on in Zimbabwe, or is this now a "make Bob feel better" issue?