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The tourism industry is now busy putting together a seriously updated tourism policy to carry their industry through to 2028 by mapping the opportunities that need to be exploited, the infrastructure that needs to be provided and the sort of investments that need to be made.
The need for the upgrade is urgent. The last policy covered the period 2014 to 2018, and the expected consultations, combined plans and the like could not take place during the Covid-19 pandemic and its immediate aftermath.
During the Covid-19 era the industry as basically in a survival mode, and the recovery period was largely restoring what had been happening before the pandemic.
Now Zimbabwe’s tourism industry has largely recovered, and is growing from historical highs, there is need for all involved to put their heads together and figure out how to accelerate progress without either killing the golden geese, the attractions that bring in tourists, creating new problems that might be expensive to manage, and how to grow the industry geographically and create new markets.
The targets being set are ambitious. The industry should be generating US$5 billion a year by the end of 2025, and its contribution to the gross national product double to 10 percent, even while it needs to grow fast to retain 5 percent in a rapidly expanding economy.
Tourism has been considered “low-hanging fruit”, in that it is possible for modest investments, so long as these are for the right development in the right places, to have major benefits.
For a start tourism tends to be very labour intensive, so a lot of new jobs can be created as investments are made, and secondly with the whole of Zimbabwe as the area of operations, tourism development can be spread into a lot of areas.
Those now involved in the consultative process need to take their role very seriously indeed. Zimbabwe does not have a centrally-planned economy with every tiny detail in place for the next five years, but a tourism policy does need to reflect on what is already there, where gaps have appeared in services or infrastructure and what is needed as the sector grows.
A lot of the marketing and a lot of the development and town and areas planning around major tourism attractions needs to be done by the many businesses and individuals working together.
Victoria Falls, the major attraction, can for example handle large hotels and small hotels, can handle five-star establishments and one-star clean and friendly family set-ups.
But it cannot handle bad town planning, filthy streets, crime or other ills. This would mean that everyone needs to be working together on many aspects before they compete for customers over the services they offer.
Victoria Falls has been growing fast as a city, and with the falls and the nearby game areas is easily the central attraction in Zimbabwe, for both holiday makers and for the growing conference business.
It attracts foreign visitors and Zimbabwean visitors. But it cannot be the sole important tourism destination in Zimbabwe if the industry is to continue growing and here we need innovation and imagination.
We need to build up a lot more marketing and investment in other areas. They may not match Victoria Falls in isolation, but between them can add up to the necessary doubling and more of the value of the industry.
The other factor for the industry to consider is the need to have visitors stay longer and see more. Someone flying in for a day trip to the Falls is all very well, but the only real consumption is a lunch, a few drinks, a few hours with a tour guide and the ZimParks fees which cannot be very high.
We need to work out how to keep them in Zimbabwe for a few nights and see what we can offer both near the falls and at other attractions.
Just as an example, a boat trip down the Zambezi and through Lake Kariba would be a major boost, or figuring out other trips and journeys.
The conference business is seen as a major boost, both for internal business conferences and for the regional, continental and even global conferences.
But it might be a good idea to work out how to get many delegates to add a relaxing holiday to their itinerary after the conference is over.
We also need to build up local tourism within Zimbabwe, with facilities that also be used by visitors wanting to spend an extra few days in the country.
Lake Chivero used to be a major example of this. It can be again. But work is needed, for a start a serious upgrade of the degraded Harare sewage systems so the lake is a pristine attraction.
Its huge advantage was that the north shore was largely privately owned and the south shore was a recreational park with a decent wildlife population and natural environment that needed to be carefully managed.
This can happen again, offering weekend family outings for more Harare metropolitan residents, or just a week in the sun fishing, along with a pleasant place for business person visiting the country without much time to spare who can be taken out for a couple of days.
Besides this, we need to make it easier for Zimbabweans to discover their own country, have a relaxing holiday in the Eastern Highlands or along the banks of the Zambezi or visit game parks and nature reserves.
This would probably mean a bit more grouping of attractions, as is already happening in Masvingo Province where a trip to Great Zimbabwe, again largely a one-day event, can be supplemented by other attractions that keep the visitor in the area for several days.
We also need to remember that the increasing urbanisation of Zimbabwe is creating new markets. We already have a growing number of people whose grandparents or great grandparents moved into the cities, and are now down to second cousins or even more distant rural relatives.
It should be possible to build up routes and modest overnight accommodation so these people can take their children and rediscover some of their roots.
The diaspora provides another such market. Again there are people overseas who are of Zimbabwean origin, but who have never seen the country, but still would like to know more about where they come from. The same sort of facilities needed by long-term urban families would be ideal for this market.
And in a slightly different direction, we should not forget the liberation war. As time passes there will be people who want to see the grave of some young fighter, their grandfather’s brother or the like, to pay their respects, and to see where their father or grandfather fought.
This would need visitor’s centres, and while the stream of visitors will never be vast, it could be regular and every additional tourism service helps boost the whole industry.
This combination of many strands is important. We can never have a short list of tourism centres or attractions.
It needs to be a very long list, some major, some medium, some more minor, but between them contributing to a huge industry benefiting many people.
Online Reporter