Sport, New Roads Reshape Sanganai Expo

Zimbabwe is folding sports tourism into its premier trade fair for the first time this year, while a wave of infrastructure upgrades in Masvingo is being positioned as a lasting legacy of hosting the event, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry.

Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Barbara Rwodzi told journalists on Tuesday that the 19th Sanganai/Hlanganani/Dzimbahwe Tourism Expo, running in Masvingo from 9 to 12 September, would for the first time integrate sports tourism into the country’s broader tourism promotion strategy.

A September Sports Tourism Carnival, opened on 1 September by Deputy Minister Tongai Mnangagwa at Mucheke Stadium, is already under way and includes soccer, netball, volleyball, basketball, golf, marathon, tennis, pool and rugby. It culminates in a Sports Tourism Awards Ceremony on 4 September. Rwodzi said the aim was to use sporting fixtures to drive domestic travel and widen Zimbabwe’s tourism offering beyond conventional attractions.

Alongside the sporting push, Rwodzi detailed infrastructure works she said would outlast the four-day Expo. These include the refurbishment of Masvingo Airport, carried out with the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development through the Airports Company of Zimbabwe, plus a new restaurant, offices, ablution facilities and a conference and events centre at the venue. The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development is also upgrading the road to the Expo site and the airport access road.

Rwodzi credited the Minister of State for Masvingo Province and his team for mobilizing construction equipment to keep the works on track, calling the project a demonstration of what a “whole-of-Government approach” can achieve for tourism-led development.

Government has also rolled out a marketing push ahead of the Expo, including radio and television adverts, billboards, in-store promotions with TM and Pick n Pay, and branded buses on the Harare–Masvingo, Harare–Bulawayo, Harare–Mutare and Mutare–Masvingo routes. Rwodzi said sustained media coverage remained the campaign’s biggest multiplier, urging journalists to help carry the story of Destination Zimbabwe to international audiences.