admin
Brighton Gumbo Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE will next year launch a Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) designed to measure tourism performance and its contribution to the national economy. As part of introducing TSA, the government has embarked on a 12-month Visitor Exit Survey which began in July. The Visitor Exit Survey is a sample survey designed to obtain information on different characteristics of visitors to Zimbabwe.
Such information cannot be obtained through the usual immigration declaration form and exit cards that visitors complete on entry and exit. Speaking during a stakeholders meeting in Bulawayo on Friday, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive officer Karikoga Kaseke said the TSA would be launched in October.
He said the TSA would go a long way in assisting the assessment of the actual revenue that Zimbabwe was receiving from domestic tourism. “Work is in progress to introduce a tourism satellite account that will clearly highlight how domestic tourism contributes to the national economy.
“We anticipate that the statistical package will be launched in October 2016. The platform will enable the government to have more accurate record on the contribution of the domestic tourism into the gross domestic product,” he said.
Kaseke said the TSA was recommended by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. He said the satellite account system would also go a long way in capturing other critical information like visitor or exit numbers, their origin, mode of transport, their likes and dislikes to establish where the money is spent in the country.
“The implementation of the tourism satellite accounting needs a lot of money but is very essential for national planning purposes,” he added. The technical team to put the TSA system in place comprises officials from the Reserve Bank, Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency, ZTA and other stakeholders in the tourism sector.
Of late, the government has noted that the domestic tourism market has untapped potential growth following the liberalisation of the economy in February 2009 complemented by an improved political and economic climate.
The tourism industry is one of the country’s major economic mainstays. Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa projects that the economy will next year register a 2,7 percent growth driven by buoyant performance of agriculture, manufacturing, mining and tourism.
Online Reporter