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The tourism sector is one of the four key economic sectors meant to drive the economic turnaround. The others are agriculture, mining and infrastructural development. Tourism accounts for 11 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. The growth of the tourism sector and the other three sectors is therefore crucial for the economic turnaround. The thrust therefore is to direct all efforts at expanding these sectors because their growth has a direct bearing on the economic turnaround.
Councils both urban and rural have a critical role to create a conducive environment to encourage investment in these key sectors. We are therefore disturbed to learn that the Victoria Falls Town Council is doing the opposite by charging the tourism sector exorbitant rates.
The council has increased rates by 650 percent, which according to the Council for Tourism, are choking the industry. The ZCT chief executive officer, Francis Ngwenya said the proposed rates could kill the tourism industry. He said the tourism industry like any other industry was looking forward to a reduction in rates and other input costs and not an increase.
The outrageous increase saw three hotels, Victoria Falls, Kingdom Hotel and Elephant Hills being dragged to court after refusing to pay arrears of $380,000. The matter has since been withdrawn from the courts after the disputing parties decided to settle the issue out of court.
Ngwenya said Victoria Falls Town Council, which was desperate to expand its revenue base, will literally kill the goose that lays the golden eggs by charging the tourism sector exorbitant rates. He urged all local authorities to exercise caution and undertake genuine, meaningful and results driven application of charges to travel and tourism organisations.
“Short term gains will quickly be overturned by medium to long term destruction of the sector through overcharging at a time the country is already deemed an expensive destination,” he said. Ngwenya said Zimbabwe should ensure the free flow of travellers from within and encourage growth of domestic tourism through affordable packages across the country. The depreciation of the rand and pula against the US dollar means that tourism destinations in neighbouring countries such as South Africa and Botswana are now cheaper compared to local destinations.
“The tourism industry must find ways to mitigate the situation through creative pricing and marketing to ensure survival,’’ said Ngwenya. The government has come up with a cocktail of measures meant to attract Foreign Direct Investment in all sectors including tourism. The measures include among others reducing the waiting time to start a business as well as reducing the cost of doing business to its barest minimum.
The government is also amending the Companies Act and other relevant investment regulations in order to align them with the best business practices. The measures that government is taking will not work as long as there are local authorities such as Victoria Falls Town Council that are working against the grain. Local authorities are an extension of central government and as such should ensure that whatever they do does not contradict central government’s position.
What is encouraging is that the hotels and Victoria Falls Town Council have agreed to resolve the issue of outrageous rates council is proposing out of court. We are very cognisant of the fact that for council to provide world class services to visitors to the country’s prime tourists destination, it needs money which should come from the tourism industry.
Whatever rates council charges should not choke the industry. The services provided by the tourism industry should remain competitive in the region for it to continue attracting tourists hence the need for council to come up with reasonable rates.
We want to once again implore council to, without delay, review its rates downwards so that it does not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Online Reporter