Tourism industry set for reopening

Leonard Ncube

Victoria Falls Reporter

The tourism industry is set to reopen, at first for the domestic market, and a tourism recovery strategy is set to be launched by Government next week.

The tourism industry is the formal sector hardest hit by Covid-19 and the resulting bans and restrictions on travel, resulting in tour operators and hotels closing indefinitely owing to lack of business.

Government is engaging stakeholders to build up domestic tourism, which over the years was overlooked in favour of international travellers.

Few Zimbabweans could afford to visit tourism resorts, but Government is working on addressing the pricing structure as part of the re-opening strategy.

Government has already developed guidelines to reopen the sector ahead of the launch of the tourism recovery strategy next week.

A Government delegation led by Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu and Local Government and Public Works Minister July Moyo, visited Victoria Falls on Monday to meet industry players and the municipality to discuss ways of re-opening the sector for domestic tourism.

In an interview, Minister Ndlovu said post-Covid-19, domestic tourism will sustain the sector before international travel can be revived.

“We are here for a number of reasons, the main one being that we are looking at the tourism town of Victoria Falls and a number of issues as we are contemplating that sooner than later, the possibility of opening up particularly for domestic tourism,” he said after the meeting in Victoria Falls.

“We have developed guidelines to reopen. As you may know, some hotels have started opening in Harare but we needed to have very strict guidelines because they are dealing with the public so we don’t want to be conduits for spreading Covid-19,” said Minister Ndlovu.

Zambia recently opened its tourism industryin Livingstone.

Tourism businesses have come up with stringent guidelines that have been certified by the Ministry of Health and Child Care to ensure the safety from Covid-19.

Government is engaging local authorities and other stakeholders to identify areas for synergies.

Victoria Falls Municipality and Hwange Rural District Council are the two local authorities directly involved in Victoria Falls tourism.

Victoria Falls residents and villagers from nearby communities will soon enjoy free entry into the rainforest, following concerns by local people who have been failing to access the Falls.

Minister Ndlovu said the meeting was meant to find critical areas of concern and one of the issues was accessibility to national parks and costing issues.

“We have a package for locals where we will designate a day for residents to visit the Falls for free. So, we want councillors to help us disseminate the information.”

Government wants to address issues of competitiveness, following concerns that local tourism, especially in Victoria Falls, was too expensive.

Plans are to have a differentiated pricing system where locals get a generally lower tariff compared to international tourists.

Minister Ndlovu said if there were more visitors, Zimbabwe will get more ambassadors.

Numerous campaigns and promotions to market tourism have been lined up and next week, Government will launch the tourism recovery strategy which emphasises the need to integrate the pricing structures from both state institutions and private players.

Minister Moyo said Victoria Falls was the face of Zimbabwe and a number one source of revenue.

“The Victoria Falls council is an important instrument for making sure that there is development of the hospitality industry. And the council has been going through disturbances in the past few months which is one of the reasons for me coming here to make sure that the council has cohesion and the councillors are working as a team together with their staff,” he said.

“They need to understand the thrust of tourism and the Ministry of Environment, which also controls the national parks. So, we decided to have a joint meeting.”

Minister Moyo called for sanity in council to ensure tourists come.