Temba Dube
Patrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
MIDLANDS Province is witnessing a surge in private investment with hotels, lodges, conference centres and res-taurants positioning the province at a vantage point to capture a bigger share of the growing Meetings, Incen-tives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism market.
The investment comes as Zimbabwe’s tourism sector records strong growth, with tourism receipts rising by 14 percent to US$251 million during the first quarter of 2026, from US$221 million during the same period last year.
International arrivals increased by 11 percent, while domestic travel rose by 35 percent to 2.62 million trips, pointing to a growing market that could stimulate investment and create opportunities across the economy.
Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) Midlands Provincial chairperson Ms Busi Musengi said the new fa-cilities were addressing longstanding shortages that had limited the province’s ability to host large groups.
“From the HAZ perspective, this is a welcome growth for the province because our cry has always been about the number of rooms available for us to attract big groups into the province,” she said.
Ms Musengi said Midlands’ central geographical location gave it an advantage in attracting both domestic and international business travellers, while the recent surge in religious tourism had further exposed the need for accommodation, conference venues and ancillary services.
“We have realised recently that there has been a surge in religious tourism, and we are talking of huge num-bers which require places to stay, catering services and other ancillary services that travellers require when they travel to a destination,” she said.
However, she said investment needed to be better coordinated to ensure that new facilities matched identified market requirements instead of being developed solely according to what individual investors could afford.
“There is need for these efforts to be collaborated so that we can come up with standardised facilities that meet what the client is looking for and what the tourism industry is looking out for,” Ms Musengi said.
She also called for minimum standards to be established and enforced, saying Zimbabwe needed to benchmark its hospitality facilities against regional competitors.
“Our standards remain very low, so there is need for collaborative efforts for us to come up with what we call minimum standards, and for those standards to be enforced by all means,” she said.
Skills shortages also remain a challenge, with the country having trained large numbers of hospitality profes-sionals who later left Zimbabwe.
“We have got a lot of skills gaps because we have had a lot of skills flight to the world. We have trained for the world and failed to retain the same skills in the country,” she said.
Ms Musengi said Gweru was increasingly positioning itself as an alternative MICE destination, but still required more large conference venues and a stadium capable of hosting major gatherings, particularly religious tour-ism events.
“There is still a lot that needs to be done, but there is good potential for MICE business if we could address the number of rooms that we still have, and then also conferencing venues and attend to our stadium so that we can call in numbers,” she said.
She said leisure tourism facilities such as Antelope Park, Whitewaters and Ngamo Dam were also broadening the province’s tourism offering, but needed greater capacity to accommodate larger numbers while maintain-ing quality.
“There is the Antelope Park, which offers game drives and other activities, and Whitewaters, where there is an introduction of wildlife, water activities and outdoor recreational activities,” she said.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce representative Ms Sikhanyisiwe Sibanda said the hospitality in-vestment could generate benefits well beyond tourism by creating a wider economic chain.
“We are thrilled to see facilities of this calibre opening. They boost not only the provincial GDP here in the Midlands but contribute significantly to the national economic outlook as a whole,” she said.
Ms Sibanda said conference delegates spend money on transport, accommodation, meals, entertainment, communication and shopping, while event organisers also require a wide range of suppliers.
Midlands Province Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Honourable Owen Ncube said the in-vestment supported the province’s wider economic development ambitions.
“We warmly welcome private and public investments that unlock economic opportunities and support regional development. Modern conference facilities strengthen tourism, attract incoming investment, and grow the ser-vice sector, perfectly aligning with the urban renewal thrust under the Second Republic,” he said.
With Zimbabwe preparing to host major international events, including the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) in 2029, the expansion of conference and hospitality infrastructure presents an opportunity for Midlands to grow beyond leisure tourism and capture business linked to investment, conferences, innovation and trade.
