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Patrick Chitumba Victoria Falls Reporter
AVERAGE hotel room occupancies in the country rose by 2 percentage points in the first half of the year to 41percent compared to the same period last year.On the other hand the average hotel bed occupancy levels contracted by 5 percentage points from 37 percent to 32 percent this year.
According to statistics from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), Harare and Masvingo recorded significant decline in occupancies and research has shown that this was largely due to reduced conferencing activities during the first half of 2013 as compared to 2012 whose whole length had constitution making activities which had spilled over from 2011.
“Notable increases were recorded in Victoria Falls and Midlands along with Hwange, Nyanga and Bulawayo which had modest increases.
Increases in Victoria Falls during the first half of the year, were to a certain caused by the clients rescheduling their intended bookings to earlier in the year so as to avoid the ‘hustle and bustle’ connected with UNWTO General Assembly in the second half of the year. It is also worth noting that the improvement in connectivity resulting from the resumption of Air Zimbabwe flights between Victoria Falls and Harare/Johannesburg is another major factor leading to the improved performance of the resort during the first half of the year,” said ZTA.
Midlands province, ZTA said, had been very suppressed for a long time but as a result of hosting increasing conferences and the increasing popularity of the Midlands Agricultural Show, occupancies had seen an increase.
“One of the factors that gives the region favourable occupancy percentages is the general lack of capacity as the region only has 314 rooms causing little actual increase to seem huge percentage wise.”
The national average hotel bed occupancy level according to ZTA fell by 5 percentage points with the greatest decline being registered by Masvingo (-28 percentage points).
“According to tourism operators in this region, this is largely due to decreased conferencing activities during the period. Victoria Falls experienced the highest growth in bed occupancies (+23 percentage points) and a significant growth in room occupancies (+21 percentage points) and Bulawayo experienced a marginal decline in bed occupancies (-2 percentage points) while at the same time recording an increase in room occupancies (+3 percentage points), signalling a possible increase in business rather than leisure clientele in these areas.”
ZTA said that UNWTO forecast continued growth in international tourism in 2013 although at a rather slower rate than previously envisaged.
In this light, arrivals are expected to increase by 3 percent to 4 percent according to long term projections by the international board.
“With the rejuvenation of the country’s major markets, arrivals into Zimbabwe are expected to ride on this positive trend throughout the year.
“This is so especially considering the current performance of markets like China, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and France. Positive trends in 2013 are also expected to hinge on the improved accessibility into the country, a stable post election environment and the probable interim after-effects of hosting the UNWTO General Assembly,” said ZTA.
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