eBusiness Weekly
The Harare International Carnival shows what we can do right in tourism, as well as what we miss.
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority was looking for a new attraction that used, very largely, the human resources of Zimbabwe. Despite the title, a very high percentage of the entertainment and the carnival atmosphere was generated by Zimbabwean entertainers with the international participants icing the cake rather than making it.
This was a quite different approach from Hifa, the Harare International Festival of the Arts which is largely organised to expose Zimbabweans to international artists, something that benefits us but does not generate foreign tourism. The carnival is designed to showcase Zimbabwean entertainers and create that street party atmosphere that attracts tourists. The prime example are the carnivals across Latin America.
The ZTA planned well, brought in a wide swathe of the Zimbabwean entertainment industry, and showed that this public-private grouping could organise well. There was some moaning over young men drinking in public, and that will be a nuisance, although it must be added that the Zimbabwean young men drinking in public were good natured if boisterous.
So what did we miss.
For a start the audiences were also Zimbabwean. The carnival benefited the entertainment industry but we doubt if there was any benefit to the general hospitality industry.
And even when we just consider the Zimbabwean audiences it was obvious that it was largely a 30-hour carnival, Friday night to late Saturday night. Those two days were great, attracted the crowds and generated a quite different atmosphere in Harare’s somewhat staid normal environment.
The public entertainment offered in the first eight days did not do very much, and that was a pity. A great deal of effort had a very modest return until the final two days.
The second problem was the attempt to mimic the carnival atmosphere of northern Latin America. There the carnivals grew out of the people. They developed as a way of a final fling in Catholic countries before the Lenten fast, and went far further than the more modest feasting of Catholic Europe. Since Lent usually starts in February a Southern Hemisphere or tropical location is required for street parties. It was only later that these expressions of a whole people’s exuberance became a major tourism attraction as well.
So how do we progress?
We would like to see the ZTA and its partners press ahead, make the carnival an annual event, bring some life to Harare’s streets and develop the carnival into something that generates enthusiasm among our own people and attracts outsiders.
But mimicking someone else’s event is perhaps not the best way forward. It has to be centred on Zimbabwe and its people; regional and international input are a welcome extra but cannot be the core. It needs to be us, what we do. The carnival organisers at least use modern Zimbabwean culture and we believe can do more, getting everyone in the entertainment section to mark the carnival in their diaries.
The timing needs to be thought through. Ten days is probably too long for a party atmosphere. Most Zimbabweans are economically active, even if a majority are active in the informal sector, and cannot party for almost two weeks. Preparations take much longer but the actual party probably needs to be just a day or two. And many of the Friday night and Saturday night events possibly have to be spread across the city. A majority of people rely on public transport and need to party closer to home if they are to have a good time. The early afternoon procession in the city centre is great, but later events need to be everywhere.
September is not a bad time of the year. The worst of winter is over but the streets are not the oven of late October. Rain is not expected so we have fine, warm weather, exceptionally suitable for a street party. However, having the main events on the weekend before school fees are due is something that we need to think through very carefully.
The ZTA and its partners should have learned a lot. Now they need to build on the successes and work out how they can create a new twist in Zimbabwean culture, and specifically work out to create an outpouring of talent and fun over a weekend where the sun is likely to shine, the weather is almost perfect and most people might have an extra dollar or two in their pockets.
Once a lot of Zimbabweans are having fun, the tourists will come.
