Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S prime resort Victoria Falls is known for its hospitality and friendly people as has been confirmed by many tourists before.
However, there are concerns by players in the tourism industry in the resort city over alleged poor customer care by some stakeholders whose services impact on the sector when dealing with tourists.
Industry players said certain behaviours embarrass the country and scare away clients, and have called for improvement in customer care.
Besides the effects of Covid-19 pandemic, which led to international travel restrictions, industry players said “too many” roadblocks along the country’s roads and alleged poor customer care by immigration and Zimbabwe Revenue Authority officers at the ports of entry, were scaring away tourists.
There are allegations that some officials deliberately become unfriendly to visitors especially those who cannot speak English or any other language known by the officers.
Victoria Falls’ main source markets are Australia, United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany, China among others. Some of the countries do not use English as their main language.
Speaking during a consultative stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Ministry of Environment, Tourism and
Hospitality Industry for small and medium tourism operators in Victoria Falls recently, industry players said first impressions were critical in tourism.
They implored the Government to ensure workers deployed to tourism areas are trained in customer relations to enhance visitor satisfaction, especially in Victoria Falls, which is the gateway and face of Zimbabwe.
“We need to engage immigration officers, Vehicle Inspection Department and police and take them through customer handling refresher courses,” said proprietor of Shockwave, a rafting company, Mr Philani Moyo.
“You have a roadblock at Masuwe Bridge and just a kilometre away there will be VID and you are stopped on both. They start asking questions about the vehicle in the presence of clients.
“That’s embarrassing, we need good customer care if we are to attract tourists. Victoria Falls is a small town and we know each other, so it’s better that if a vehicle has problems, you call the person to the station and sort everything out in the absence of clients.”
Another operator concurred saying there were too many roadblocks on the country’s roads.
“Tourists would have flown for 12 hours and landed at the airport and the next thing they need is to rest but they will encounter numerous roadblocks before they reach the hotel. That is not good for tourism,” said the operator.
Owner of Mahelane Tours, Mr Christopher Ndiweni, said tourism was fragile hence it was easily affected by conditions and activities of its stakeholders. He, however, called for improvement of conditions of service for police and port authorities so that they diligently execute their duties.
“Police and immigration officers should be capacitated and their conditions of service improved so that they enjoy their work and feel obliged to serve clients with care,” he said.
The operators also said the heavy presence of haulage trucks that park on the sides of Livingstone Way near Mkhosana turn-off, sometimes for days and at the border post, were an eyesore to tourists. “The situation is unbearable and tourists have to manoeuvre their way through trucks to be able to access the Rainforest and Victoria Falls Bridge. That’s not good for tourism,” said another operator.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr Munesu Munodawafa, said customer care was one of Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA’s) 100-day cycle programme hence it has to be revived.
Acting ZTA chief executive Mr Givemore Chidzidzi said: “Victoria Falls did wonders during the United Nations World Tourism Organisation in 2013 after all concerned stakeholders were trained in customer care during the preparations.
“We shouldn’t have stopped because that model worked, so we are going to pursue that and roll out the training programme to the whole country.” — @ncubeleon.
Online Reporter