Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
A LOCAL hospitality group, Africa Albida Tourism (AAT), has predicted a major boom for Victoria Falls, which is set to become the next regional tourism hub adding to Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.
A survey carried out by AAT around Victoria Falls and Hwange, Livingstone in Zambia and Kasane in Botswana, which is part of the KAZA Transfrontier Conservation Area, shows that new infrastructural developments such as the Victoria Falls Airport have opened up the destination to much larger tourist numbers.
The report recommended the need for infrastructure growth especially in accommodation to cater for the unprecedented growth, which is likely to reach an overall 15 percent within five years, beating the 20 percent growth of the 1990s, which was recorded in six years.
In the last few months, tourism growth reached between 20 and 25 percent in Victoria Falls. Activities such as whitewater rafting, helicopter flights, canoeing, fishing, tour of the Rainforest, and others will also be on high demand, according to the survey.
“Victoria Falls is superbly positioned for the coming growth in tourism. It’s central to Kaza and surrounded by magnificent undiscovered wildlife hence new regional and Africa wide linkages have completely opened up the area for business,” read part of the survey report.
After the commissioning of the airport, Ethiopian Airways, Kenya Airways, SA Airlink, have added to the existing SA Airways, Namibian Airways, Fastjet, ComAir and all have so far increased available inbound passenger seats by nearly 200 000 per annum.
The upgraded airport has capacity to accommodate close to two million arrivals per annum. The 2017 total area tourist arrivals were up by 11 percent with international arrivals rising sharply.
Victoria Falls recorded a sharp uptick in UK arrivals in 2017 and AAT said: “This is likely just the beginning of significant volume increases. In the 1990s, the UK provided 30 percent of arrivals in Victoria Falls and these rose sharply in 2017. It’s possible that Zimbabwe is headed for growth exceeding 15 percent in under five years and technicians and administrators would do well to advance in-depth planning and infrastructure development”.
Other key source markets are USA, Japan, Germany, Australia, France Italy, Canada and China. In an interview, AAT chief executive Mr Ross Kennedy said the resort town still has room to accommodate more arrivals. Industry feeling, however, is that generally there is a room deficit of 2 500 rooms.
“My belief is that tourism across the country will be growing. We measure 11 hotels, which are sitting over 60 percent capacity and half of them have had occupancies around 80 percent in the last few months. This is positive growth without a question but there is still capacity in hotels for more arrivals to fill rooms.
“There are opportunities in the tourism sector but I think we should be clear that we are not short of rooms as bigger hotels have not yet reached capacity although some are full. However, with new airlines coming, in three years time, that’s when we might need more rooms,” he said.
Mr Kennedy was speaking on the sidelines of a recent tourism convention here last week, which he said was a perfect platform for the industry to engage and share views. He said not only Victoria Falls had recorded growth as Hwange, Matopos and Mana Pools also reported positive growth, although lower than Victoria Falls.
A few destinations that rely on road transport such as the Eastern Highlands are projected to be slow in growth compared to those accessible by air. – @ncubeleon
Online Reporter