By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
Following mobile giant NetOne’s win at the Sanganai/Hlanganani/Dzimbahwe Awards Ceremony, there is an interesting distinction worth making.
NetOne won exactly one category: Best Tourism Supplier, ahead of Liquid Intelligent Technologies and Econet Wireless.
A supplier award is a strange kind of prize. It recognises the thing nobody notices until it stops working.
“Reliable connectivity is foundational to the tourism experience,” the operator said in its statement following the award, “enabling travellers to navigate destinations seamlessly, share their journeys in real time, and connect with local enterprises.”
The logic is difficult to dispute. Tourism increasingly runs on connectivity — from the moment a traveller searches for a destination to the moment they post that they have arrived.
The same is true of the airline category, where Air Zimbabwe, Fastjet and Falcon Air competed for an award ultimately won by local carrier Air Zimbabwe.
Modern air travel is a data product before it is a flight: online booking, mobile check-in, e-ticketing, delay notifications and the airport Wi-Fi a passenger uses to tell someone they have landed.
In that sense, the two awards are less disconnected than they first appear. One recognises the company flying the traveller; the other recognises some of the infrastructure that helps keep the journey connected.
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