daniel chigunwe
MANY will be disturbed by the report of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe that 48 percent of all businesses involved in the tourism sector are not registered with the Reserve Bank and are not reporting their forex earnings and giving details of the funds they hold in foreign bank accounts, and the contracts they have with foreign agents.
The tourism sector, when it is earning money from people and companies in other countries, is in the same position as any exporter, except in this case instead of selling containers of goods or products it is selling an “invisible export” of what we hope is a very good time in Zimbabwe to all those who visit the country.
All the exporters of physical products have to maintain strict records and account for all the money they earn from exports within set deadlines.
If they need to keep money outside Zimbabwe for some good reason they need to convince the Reserve Bank that it is a good reason, and even then they need to tell Zimra how much they have earned and pay whatever taxes are due.
It is much easier for the authorities to check on exporters of physical products, since these products in their wagons, or trucks or containers or even in the boot of a car had to go through a border post where someone would have a look and count.
But exporters of invisible exports still have to follow very much the same procedures and account for what foreigners have bought.
The reasons for this are many, and are common to almost every country. For a start the Reserve Bank needs to know how much Zimbabweans, in total, have earned from sales outside Zimbabwe, as well as how much they have bought in the way of imports from outside Zimbabwe.
This forms the critical calculation of the balance of trade, and once other inflows and outflows of foreign currency are included, gives the balance of payments.
That balance of payments needs to be positive if the economy is to be healthy, and preferably the gap between imports and exports should not be very large, even if it is covered by diaspora remittances and other inflows.
These figures not only give the statistics which allow economic growth and the like to be determined, but also are critical when policies are set over just what can be imported and how, and the statistics are needed by the banking sector when it creates the weighted averages that set the exchange rate. Bad statistics lead to bad policies.
One important point for all exporters, both those of physical goods and those of invisible exports, is that normal commercial transactions cannot be used to externalise Zimbabwean capital.
It is possible to move capital from Zimbabwe, but this has to be done under a different set of rules and needs to be authorised in advance.
So an exporter of a physical product cannot just ask their foreign customer to shove the money in the exporter’s foreign bank account and then forget about it until the owner of the export business turns up and empties the account. It is the same for tourism operators.
The Reserve Bank is well aware that many operators do have, and often must have, foreign bank accounts since a lot of trips and holidays are paid in advance via a travel agent holding a contract that allows payments of commissions up front.
But, not unreasonably, the Reserve Bank wants to know where these accounts are, how much is in them and how long it has been there.
All a tourism operator needs to remember that regardless of whether you are selling containers of tobacco or good quality holidays, the financial side is pretty much the same and the same rules thus need to be applied, any difference in the forms used for reporting arising from the different nature of each product, visible and invisible.
The other worrying factor is that many tourism operators are probably not registered with the tourism authorities in Zimbabwe, and this is important for the industry.
For a start the authorities do need to know what the tourism industry is selling, where and the levels of sales and the levels of quality. One job that the whole industry needs to share is marketing the country, as well as marketing their own tourism business, and this does require some oversight.
If there is a large group, or even a small group, of operators who cheat their clients and customers, conning them with false advertising or simply not delivering what it promised, this will affect the whole industry as the Zimbabwean brand moves towards the gutter.
If everyone is pulling their weight and at least being honest and at least fulfilling their promises, then brand Zimbabwe becomes trusted.
It does not matter if one operator runs facilities at the top end of the global luxury market and another is offering and delivering a fairly basic accommodation package that at least has clean rooms and safe bathrooms, so long as the cost reflects the difference in quality and both are giving value for money.
When people chat on social media about their holidays they rarely hammer a particular operator or a particular sector or sub-sector. They will tend to trash the country they were visiting if their experience was bad, or praise it if their experience was good.
So the industry as a whole wins when all operators are honest, welcoming, sort out complaints promptly and give value for the money they charge. The word gets around.
So there needs to be a greater effort made to bring all tourism operators into the ambit of the tourism authorities, so that the criminals and con-artists can be removed and the respectable and law-abiding majority can be helped wherever possible and everyone can benefit from the best possible “brand Zimbabwe”.
Online Reporter