adminCosta Mano Business Correspondent
As the year draws to a close, the country’s tourism industry will look back at 2013 as a historic and good year, a period that saw the hosting of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation General Assembly, Air Zimbabwe taking to the skies and most importantly a peaceful election.
Moving forward the industry will carry its burdens, among them expensive credit, into 2014 hopeful of improved fortunes triggered by a relatively better 2013.
The figures for the second half of the year are yet to be availed but a read of the first half point to a year in which tourism has shown growth driven by the ever increasing regional trade and commerce.
Zimbabwe recorded a 12 percent increase in tourist arrivals in the first half of 2013, standing at 859 995 as compared to 767 393 during the same period in 2012.
The industry has indeed shown the immense potential it carries and Zimbabwe Council for Tourism (ZCT) president Mr Francis Ngwenya concurred saying the country can be proud of what it achieved.
“Here’s hoping that in coming months and years we can extend this spirit of ‘we can do it and we can do it well’ to every sphere of life in our country. We have seen co-operation between people, organisations and even countries. We have seen what can happen when people work together for a common goal,” he said in an interview.
Mr Ngwenya pointed to the successful hosting of the UNWTO General Assembly as a major highlight of the tourism industry. The result and long term benefit from this is the “Safe Destination” endorsement the country now has and this has to be used to correct negative perceptions created.
“First we need to understand that the hosting of the UNWTO General Assembly was not meant to just generate one – off revenue boost ,but to endorse Zimbabwe as a safe destination .It was a long term ‘Image Perception Management” project and it worked well.
“Industry has an endorsement to use in the market and each Zimbabwean can now say at every platform especially social media that “it is safe to visit Zimbabwe, we hosted the best UNWTO General Assembly meeting in Zimbabwe with no problems.”
The peaceful elections which came just before the meeting were testaments of the pride Zimbabwean people take in a peaceful existence.
2103 also witnessed the extension and provision of Statutory Instrument 124 which saw players in the industry benefit from duty free exemptions for capital goods. The Victoria Falls facilities such as the airport, the hospital, roads, and power sub stations got major upgrades leaving the destination a better place.
Most of National Parks lodges and camps were also given a facelift.
Mr Ngwenya said the industry was happy with the duty free concessions and expects more supportive policies so that tourism can start contributing more to the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset) targets.
“The policy targets an increase in the tourism industry’s contribution to the GDP from 6,8 percent to 15 percent by 2015. The impact on the economy from the last concession is a great case study.
“Hotels that used the duty free concessions to refurbish their rooms in some instances doubled the VAT generation per room where average room rates before refurbishment went from US$65 to US$120 after the refurbishment since the world class rooms could now demand a higher rate from the business traveler.”
The skies proved another highlight with Air Zimbabwe getting back in the air with great promotions and the growing number of international airlines coming back to Zimbabwe such as KLM, Air France and increased frequency from SAA and British Airways operated by Comair.
Looking to the future, the ZCT president said issues to do with access have to be looked at and there’s need to have supportive policies.
“We need to make it easy to visit Zimbabwe, the Visa process must be easy and an online application system is a must for our target markets. Ports of entry must be friendly, clean, quick, safe and welcoming but Beitbridge border post does not have the reputation for any of these.
“We cannot wait for the one stop border post to be set up as we have at Chirundu. Our regular and at times permanent road blocks do not give the self drive tourist the welcome that is world class,” he said.
He said with regards to infrastructure the industry needs cheaper, affordable long term funds for the SME’s to the public listed hospitality giants.
The current capacity of hospitality facilities in the country will not be able to grow the GDP contribution to meet the targets.
“To grow the tourism arrivals from 2.2 million to 3.3 million by the year 2015 we will need increased capacity apart from just increasing the utilisation of the current,” he said.
Online Reporter