adminBianca Mlilo, Business Reporter
A REVOLVING fund for Bulawayo tourism operators is on the cards to help them upgrade their premises as funding constraints are a major impediment in the sector, an official has said.
Upgrading in hospitality terms means meeting prescribed standards which will give the facility a notch higher in rankings, for example from a two-star to a three-star facility.
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive officer Karikoga Kaseke said this had led to them coming up with the idea of the fund which would be accessible to Bulawayo operators.
“The other challenges highlighted by operators revolve around the issues to do with lack of funds to develop businesses.
‘‘We need a revolving fund that will allow players to borrow to grow their businesses,” said Kaseke.
“We’ve already engaged the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (John) Mangudya who is supportive of tourism development.
‘‘We’ll engage him further and I’m certain very soon a pronouncement will be made in terms of a financial rescue package for the tourism sector.”
On a related note, Kaseke said there was a need to come up with a solution which would address the challenges besetting the tourism sector.
He said they were drawing up a five-year business plan for Bulawayo and this will require the participation of multiple sectors but the process would be led by ZTA.
All stakeholders, Kaseke said, would be involved if the fortunes of Bulawayo are to be turned around.
He noted with concern that accommodation facilities in the city had low business.
“One universal and overarching challenge that we saw was that there’s low, if not no business.
‘‘There’s serious low capacity utilisation of facilities, with the occupancy levels being around 15 percent.
‘‘We need to address this challenge if we’re serious about turning around the tourism economy of this province”, Kaseke said.
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