Chronicle Editor
Cletus Mushanawani, Harare Bureau
The outbreak of COVID-19, which is caused by coronavirus, has negatively impacted on the tourism industry together with the small to medium enterprises since movements have been significantly restricted.
SMEs cannot travel to China to import various goods such as clothes, cellphones and vehicle spare parts, for resale due to fear of contracting the virus.
Similarly, Chinese tourists have significantly cut down on foreign travels for fear of further spreading the virus which has killed over 2 700 people across the world, but mainly in mainland China.
Over 79 000 cases had been reported.
About 12 deaths have been reported in Iran while five people have been killed in Italy.
The situation for local traders and tourists has been compounded by aviation giant, Emirates’ decision to suspend flights to Guangzhou and Shanghai from February 5 until further notice.
Emirates said customers with bookings on affected flights will not be accepted for boarding at point of origin.
“Customers booked to fly to and from Guangzhou or Shanghai from January 28, 2020 to April 30 (both dates inclusive) can contact their travel agent or Emirates office to refund their unused ticket, or choose to reroute their journey to and from Beijing or Hong Kong. Any applicable change fee or fare difference will be waived.
“Outside of this travel period, normal refund and flight change charges will apply,” reads the statement.
Guangzhou and Shanghai are two of the most popular destinations for local traders who also rely on the Emirates flights.
The International Air Transport Association, the trade body for the global airline industry, gave a gloomy picture and warned last week that falling passenger demand would cost the airline industry about US$29,3 billion in lost revenues.
Global air travel is expected to fall for the first time in over a decade.
The country’s tourism sector is experiencing mixed fortunes, with areas such as Victoria Falls presently off-season in terms of tourist arrivals, which tend to pick in July.
In an interview yesterday, Joe Travel and Tours general manager Mr Leo Manyembere said their business had taken a knock because of the outbreak of the coronavirus.
“We have been affected by this outbreak. We rely much on the Chinese and Asian market at large.
“We are not getting any bookings of late and as long as this virus is still taking its toll on people from our busiest Asian market; we don’t expect much in terms of business.
“As a remedy, we are now targeting the regional and local market, but the figures we are getting are not that significant.
“We invested a lot in the Eastern market and we are not getting the desired benefits because of this virus,” he said.
However, Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe president Mr Clive Chinwada said while they have had some cancellations, the situation was not gloomy.
“We have not felt much impact in terms of cancellation of tourist arrivals because of the coronavirus.
“There were a few cancellations of tourist bookings in Victoria Falls and we are not much worried as this is an off-peak season for the country’s prime resort area.
“Victoria Falls’ peak season is in July and we hope by then the coronavirus situation would have improved,” said Mr Chinwada.
Online Reporter