Zimbabwe’s Healthy Tourism Future Starts With Healthy Local Communities
Photo Credit: Zimbabwe children who are the benficiaries of the work of Tendai Nhunzwi, general manager of the human resources and neighbor outreach program for the Malilangwe Trust Malilangwe Trust
Skift Take
Often unseen from the front-and-center of a destination's tourism economy are people like Tendai Nhunzwi. In Zimbabwe, Nhunzwi, a trained accountant, is working tirelessly on the frontlines to ensure local communities are fed and healthy — underscoring the basic principle that there would no tourism without those communities.
One of the enduring lessons for tourism as the world emerges from the pandemic is that it really all starts from the ground up — with communities, healthy communities that build the foundation to create a thriving tourism trade.
But the obstacles to nurturing those communities are many, as Zimbabwe shows us, for example, and a reason why the work of people like Tendai Nhunzwi is so essential for the southern Africa country, home to countless wildlife sanctuaries and natural wonders, including the Victoria Falls. Rebuilding the tourism economy, which saw a 28 percent decline in employment from 2019 to 2020 to 128,000, will start locally.
Tendai Nhunzwi, general manager of the human resources and neighbor outreach program for the Malilangwe Trust Source: Malilangwe Trust.Yet, food shortages in Africa are expected to be even worse this year, according to the United Nations.
It's a perfect storm of inflation, a global pandemic, as well as a war in Ukraine affecting grain supply. Extreme weather and climate change furthers the situation, and economic pressure on farmers means they sometimes lack the seeds, fertilizer, and other necessary elements to plant and harvest next year.
The IMF estimates that staple food prices in sub-Saharan Africa rose by an average of 24 percent between 2020 and 202
