JUDGING by the advertising, it seemed this year’s sponsor in its entirety was Abu Dhabi, but surely this could not be the case? Their stand was stunning in its simplicity – absolutely! But you have to see it to appreciate the fringes of ice-white strands of silk hanging from the ceiling, in circular movements. Beige carpeted furniture complimented the sand-tinged carpeting epitomising the desert – complimented by massive coloured photographs of camels crossing the sand.
The Africa stands were not unlike those I visited in 2006 although one or two had exciting additional facets e.g. hand-reared live gorillas handing out bananas! Actually they were staff in gorilla costumes at the Eden stand, but it made a startling and dramatically amusing change. The South African stand was huge, but its exhibitors were all placed at small tables with two or three chairs which diminished the impact of their products.
Understandably the Zimbabwe exhibitors, topped by Air Zimbabwe upstairs, were not as profuse as one would have wished, but you have to hand it to that handful of dedicated Zimbabweans for their continued resilience in the face of a political shadow which has attracted the world’s media.
In place of the mighty Victoria Falls, solid grey walls of Great Zimbabwe dominated the stand. Is there a message here? It would have been good to have a positive outcome to the SADC conference last weekend, but sadly this was not to be.
Air Zimbabwe’s latest issue of SKYHOST in-flight reading is really a great improvement on two year’s ago one and the new editor Alfonce Mbizwo is to be complimented on his efforts – if you could not visit WTM and still want a copy of SKYHOST perhaps you should email him at ambizwo@airzimbabwe.aero - if there are any copies left!
David Mwenga, Gertrude Banda and Pride Khumbalo of Air Zimbabwe were there to greet visitors on the first day along with Tinashe Munjoma, the General Manager of Meikles while Claudine van Monsjou, of Sawadee Reizen (Netherlands) appeared to spend a long visit at Natureways Safaris!
The Gambia stand attracted many visitors with its solitary musician quietly playing the kora. That is when I realised I missed the soft notes of the mbira and drumming at the Zimbabwe stand.
PICTURES
Miss Tourism Zimbabwe at WTM 2008, Cynthia Muvirimi
Claudine van Monsjou with Clive of Natureways on the Zimbabwe stand
Tinashe Munjoma, of Meikles Hotel
David Mwenga and Pride Khumbalo flank Givemore Chidzidzi of the ZW Tourism Authority
Miss Tourism Zimbabwe and Rachel
Patrick Masvikeni of Rainbow Tourism Group and colleague
DM • na. Subject: THE NEW LOOK OF SELLING Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:14:51 • Overall I felt that the Africa stands were not that boring. With new technology the promoters are more inclined to use computer presentations than the kind of displays we used to see a few years back. You will also note the insistence on 'personal, one-to-one ' selling or marketing. Brochures are abundant now and I would say Africa had a fair amount. South Africa took one and a half times the space they had last year and I felt they did a lot more personal selling than before. Their stand was not as 'colourful' picture wise as in the past but i know more people visited them this year.
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