Minister pushes for relaxation of visa requirements

Business Correspondent
THE Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry is pushing for the relaxation of the country’s visa regime in a bid to boost tourist arrivals into the country.In an interview on the sidelines of a Press briefing in Harare last week, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Engineer Walter Mzembi (pictured far right), said his ministry was making progress towards relaxing the VISA regime which is believed to be an obstacle to growth of the tourism sector.

“Tourism is the country’s window in terms of decisions on trade and investment. It becomes very imperative for those enabler factors in our economy to understand how they can aid visitation and the visa regime is one such. This is why at each and every tourism conference today we talk about a country’s openness and VISA liberalisation because you can’t enjoy the wealth of other nations unless you have opened up,” he said.

Eng Mzembi said countries that have openness were the ones with the largest share of the global tourism revenue of $1,3 trillion.

Zimbabwe’s market share at the end of last year was $800 million of the $1,3 trillion globally while Africa’s share was four percent of the figure.

“What it means is we have to open up doors if we are to enjoy the $1,3 trillion. We have to open up Africa a lot more so as to enjoy the revenue, you can’t enjoy if you are a closed economy.

“If you are going to enjoy the wealth of other nations you must keep your gates open. If we have 250 nations then what it means is we must issue them with Visas on arrival or no Visa at all. This is where the world is going. Successful tourism models in Malaysia, Seychelles and Singapore do not have these regimes,” said Eng Mzembi.

Zimbabwe, however, recorded a 12 percent increase in tourist arrivals in the first half of 2013, registering 859 995 compared to 767 393 visitors during the same period in 2012, according to statistics from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority on growth in tourism arrivals in 2013.
South Africa, Mozambique and Zambia shared over 70 percent of the arrivals from the Sadc region.

The increasing regional trade and commerce also contributed immensely to this growth in arrivals, through the activities of business tourists, cross-border traders and transiting tourists, mostly drawn from the DRC, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.