New partnership between ZTA, arts

The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority’s chairperson Karikoga Kaseke announced the birth of a new strategic partnership between Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) and Bulawayo’s Intwasa Arts festival in September on the festival’s opening night.    His comments were well-received by icons in the arts and culture sector. “I know Kaseke to be a practical man who does as he says he will do. So I have no doubt in my mind that he will carry through his promise to help make the festival the biggest one in Zimbabwe in three years’ time,” spoke Cont Mhlanga of Amakhosi Township Square.

A few months down the line, festivals are proliferating and recent new comer the Beitbridge International Festival of the Arts was successfully held in the small town. Growing sentiment in the arts and culture sector is that the tourism body is the right sort of institutional partner required to raise it to greater levels.

The synergy between the two sectors is obvious to my mind as this column has in an earlier article submitted that Paris receives millions of visitors to its shores because of the arts and culture. The name Paris evokes thoughts of the cafes, the music, the fashion, the films and of course the Bohemian lifestyle popularised by its famous artists.

Indeed, the new arts and culture ministry needs to create platforms or at least engage in consultative meetings with the ZTA amongst others as it develops a cultural industry growth strategy. South Africa has a document, a result of painstaking work commissioned by that country’s authorities.

The document encapsulates research on the publishing, arts and crafts, music, film, dance and theatre sectors to mention a  few. This document has helped the country’s arts and culture industry to thrive because there is empirical data that guides the planning agencies.