SMEs financing key to tourism growth: Rifai

Harare Bureau
RE-ELECTED United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) secretary-general Mr Taleb Rifai says support for small-to-medium enterprises is critical for the growth of the tourism sector in Africa. Mr Rifai said investment growth in tourism was directly related to the extent that the countries on the continent drive small-to-medium sector participation in the sector.
The statement by the UNWTO secretary general tallies well with the empowerment programmes that are being implemented by the Zimbabwean Government through the indigenisation and economic empowerment policy.

“The reason why there is a problem with investment in Africa’s tourism is because investment in tourism is really about financing and enabling and empowering small and medium size investors to establish small and medium size establishments.

“Tourism is not in principle an industry that is dependent so much on big investment and large and gigantic corporations unlike the mining or any other of those big industries,” he said.

“Therefore the issue of lack of investments in Africa is because there is a problem in the financing apparatus and in the financing mechanism in Africa particularly when it comes to facilitating financing for the small and medium size industries.”

And true to the UNWTO secretary-general’s words, the organisation has already approved community-based initiatives for Zimbabwe, through the Sustainable Tourism for the Reduction of Poverty (STERP), which will result in the increased participation of women and youth in the tourism sector.

Earlier in the week outgoing Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry Engineer Walter Mzembi highlighted the fact that the country’s tourism policies are intricately tied to its indigenisation and empowerment policies.

“We have allocated farms to many of our citizens who are sitting on tea houses, who are sitting on potential game parks on their farms and we want them to awaken to these opportunities.

“Tourism is now largely being driven by biodiversity, especially that which attracts people into Africa,” said Minister Mzembi.
“When people come to Africa they want to see game, so we must begin to plan in a very ecological kind of way on the new farms that were allocated to our people and see that alternate spin of catch that can come out of tourism.

“Potentially, each farm that people got is a tourism product, which is why earlier on in my tenure as Tourism Minister I advocated for the whole country to be designated a tourism development zone.”

Increased participation by SMEs in the tourism sector can foster job growth and equal distribution of national wealth, especially in-so-far as global tourist arrivals have grown to impressive levels and now have a significant impact both on the national and global levels.
UNWTO statistics show an incremental trend in international tourist arrivals worldwide over the last five decades.

International tourist arrivals have grown from 25 million in 1950 to 278 million in 1980, to 528 million in 1995, and 1,3 billion last year.