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Herald Reporter
Zimbabwe’s tourism stakeholders yesterday met in Harare to craft a post-Covid-19 tourism recovery strategy focusing on prioritising the domestic market and product diversification.
Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu said the expectation was that international tourism would take time to recover, hence the need to look at domestic tourism.
The meeting drew participants from several sectors including the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, youths in tourism, Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe and the hospitality industry.
Minister Ndlovu said they looked at critical issues inhibiting the growth of domestic tourism and how to address that.
“We tackled issues to do with providing support structures. The sector highlighted that there are other enablers, other players who are providing services to the sector whose rates are quite high (such as local authorities and electricity rates),” he said.
Minister Ndlovu said it was critical to find ways to collaborate to see the costs coming down for locals to start travelling.
It is thought that once the domestic tourism starts to respond, tourism players can go regional.
“We remain alert, we are not going to be complacent, but so far we believe that we have reasonable numbers.
“It might not take long before the regional tourism roars into life, so we are getting ready for that as well.
“In the medium to long-term, we are looking at our airports opening for the international space. What I want to emphasise again is that in the discussion, we were quite clear that we don’t want to restore tourism as it was.
“We want the best case scenario, we believe Zimbabwe is a very beautiful country,” said Minister Ndlovu.
Zimbabwe feels it has not been getting the best out of its tourism, and plans to take this opportunity to look at other areas where it can do better such as service excellence.
Minister Ndlovu wants a better and bigger tourism industry as the country recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, seeks to achieve an upper middle income economy by 2030.
The tourism industry has been the hardest hit by Covid-19 due to travel restrictions imposed globally to contain the spread of the virus.
The meeting agreed there was need to come up with various interventions including the timely disbursement of the $500 million stimulus package set aside for the sector by Government.
Tourism players also advocated for wider collaborations among themselves.
The issue of pricing of tourism products also came under discussion with most players agreeing that domestic tourism was the starting point to revive the sector, but called for the capacitation of the national airline, Air Zimbabwe.
Another issue that came up was on tax rebates, which some tourism sub-sectors said were not benefiting from.
The arts and craft sector called on Government to consider opening up spaces to act as markets and exhibitions for artists while observing the social distancing regulations.
The tourism strategic plan will inform the National Development Strategy plan by Government.
Online Reporter