adminNgoni Dapira Business Correspondent
THE Eastern Highlands dubbed the “Switzerland of Africa” is one of the most beautiful and scenic regions in Zimbabwe.
It ranges from the rolling countryside timber plantations of the Nyanga range to the granite peaks of the Chimanimani Mountains and the green botanical gardens and coffee plantations of the Vumba range.
Mutare is the hub of this grandiose region, which sadly, however, has over the years, not been fully utilised as a marketable, strategic and spectacular tourist destination.
During the 2013 United Nations World Tourism Organisation General Assembly hosted jointly by Zimbabwe and Zambia, the Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Cde Walter Mzembi said the national drive was now focused on putting the country back in the limelight as an idyllic tourism destination.
Minister Mzembi, however, said though the country had great tourism potential, it needed key enablers to boost the sector and achieve the $5 billion tourism campaign by 2018.
Tourism players in the recently launched marketing and promotional campaign, the Eastern Highlands Experience have started serious engagements to revive tourism in the region.
Top on the agenda was the idea to put up an airport terminal in Mutare which has for years been a pipe dream for tourism players’ with nothing tangible ever materialising.
Mutare has two optional sites to build an airport terminal, one is the rundown Mutare aerodrome airstrip in Sakubva near Mutare Teachers’ College and the other is the Grand Reef Airport, used by the military.
However, the current new dispensation of public, private partnerships (PPPs) ushered by Government under the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation has been cited as an opening to drive the Mutare Airport agenda.
PPPs have been identified as key in supplementing the limited fiscal space to push developmental infrastructural projects.
EHE chairman Mr William Chatigu of Kwayedza Lodge in Vumba said the most recent learning curve of PPPs could be taken from the Chiredzi Buffalo Range airport terminal refurbishment following the partnership between the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe, Tongaat Hulett and Malilangwe Trust. The project cost $212 000.
The Lowveld region, just like the Eastern Highlands was in dire need of a well functional airport to stimulate economic activity in the area through direct flights.
The airport was the missing gateway to the lowveld, home to the Triangle and Hippo Valley sugar estates as well as the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. Post Business interviewed tourism players in the Eastern Highlands Experience who were all agreeable to the need for PPPs to set-off the Mutare airport dream.
“In order to achieve the $5 billion target, the tourism sector needs to be incentivised in a number of areas.
“In Manicaland, we are lacking direct flights like in other tourist resorts Victoria Falls, Masvingo to Great Zimbabwe and Kariba. Our airstrip is no longer usable but what we want is to actually put up an airport terminal,” said Mr Chatigu.
EHE treasurer Mr Franky Marembo of White Horse Inn in Vumba called on the Manicaland business community to come together in this campaign.
He said the setting up of an airport would be beneficial to all in business.
“We are now operating in an advanced world where time is money for some people.
“Road travel can be exhausting to some busy people but once we have direct flights we can have foreign investors flying in directly here to conduct business.
“I am imploring the Manicaland business community to come together and work towards this agenda,” said Mr Marembo.
Inns of Zimbabwe executive chairman, Mr Gordon Adams concurred and said big business opportunities would come once an airport terminal has been put up.
“We now have many licensed privately owned airlines in Zimbabwe being elbowed out of business by foreign airlines. By creating more domestic routes there will be business for these small airlines. This will also boost domestic tourism because local flights are now affordable,” said Mr Adams.
Mutare businessman and Dangamvura-Chikanga legislator Cde Esau Mupfumi, who once raised intentions some years back to purchase his private airplane and refurbish the Mutare airstrip welcomed the campaign.
“Although the liquidity constraints in the economy have hit us bad as business, this development is needed in the province and I welcome the idea.
“When I raised the matter during the Zimbabwe dollar era my plans were hindered by the hyper inflation. I will support private players interested in this issue because we need an airport terminal definitely in the province,” said Cde Mupfumi.
During the 2014 Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development Mr Munesu Munodawafa said Government was under-resourced and handling infrastructure resuscitation projects gradually.
Mr Munodawafa called on private and public partnerships to upgrade the Mutare airport in the wake of inadequate resources on the side of Government.
He said first priority would be the completion of refurbishment of the Victoria Falls Airport followed by the Buffalo Range Airport then the rest will follow.
CAAZ public relations manager Ms Annajulia Hungwe could not be contacted for comment by the time of going to press on Wednesday to quantify the amount needed to build the Mutare Airport terminal.
Mr Chatigu added that the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority tourism master plan that is expected to see arrivals grow to five million by 2015 from the current 2,2 million was achievable.
He, however, said it could only be achieved if new tourist destinations were supported, particularly those in the Eastern Highlands like the Mutarazi Falls in Nyanga and Bridalveil Falls in Chimanimani to mention a few.
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