President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the First Lady, Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa, have received awards at the inaugural UN Tourism Regional Forum on Gastronomy Tourism.The event, which celebrates food tourism, kicked off today in the resort town of Victoria Falls and will end on Sunday, July 28. The First Lady of Serbia, H.E. Tamara Vučić, the First Lady of Angola, H.E. Ana Dias Lourenço and the United National Tourism Secretary General, H.E. Zurab Pololikashvili, attended the event.President Mnangagwa’s Communications revealed:“The UN acknowledged the work being done by the First Lady in promoting gastronomy with an award. The President was given 100 scholarships in tourism and culinary for his support in addition to the 100 that were given to the First Lady to empower youth in the sector.”The First Lady is promoting Zimbabwe’s unique food culture and explained her drive at the event:“Tourism, as you are all aware, has evolved from mere holidaying; many countries now rely on Tourism as their major economic driver. My Gastronomy journey was inspired by passion to improve the livelihoods of our people. Today, Zimbabwe continues with the journey on raising awareness of our traditional foods and their medicinal value.”Gastronomy Tourism is travel that focuses on indulging and learning about a destination’s food culture, regional cuisine, and culinary customs.Zimbabwe earned US$1,1 billion in 2023, a 22 per cent increase from 2022. In 2017, SADC recorded US$19.4 billion of its combined GDP.Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry Barbara Rwodzi signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the UN body to build an African Tourism and Culinary Academy in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.ALSO READ: First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa Speaks On Her Honorary Doctorate in LawPresident Emmerson Mnangagwa and First Lady Dr Auxillia Receive Awards At Regional Gastronomy Forum [Image: @InfoMin/X]Online Reactions To The RecognitionPeople online reacted to the Award President Mnangagwa and Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa received:Unathi:“I have never heard of Mnangagwa attending any Policy Workshop, Budget Workshop, Strategic Planning session etc.”George:“Dr Amai is health and Tourism ambassador, yet we thought Gucci Grace was too much she is hard working.”Follow Us on Google News for Immediate UpdatesSiyabonga MpiniSiyabonga is a young lad in his mid-twenties who is a sucker for the pen.He hails from Westville and studied media at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.He fell for print reporting and envisioned becoming a political writer.Siya has, however, fallen in love with lifestyle and entertainment reporting so much that politics feels like a bore now.The lad believes everyone has a unique and interesting experience they lived in the past. He is passionate about unravelling this past and extracting nuggets from it that will amaze and inspire the reader.Despite being in a highly outgoing profession, Siya prefers being indoors in his free time. Social media makes him tick, and it’s where most of his free time goes; that’s if he’s not reading anything from Sydney Sheldon and John Grisham or if he’s not listening to AfroBeats and Amapiano.