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Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) estimates that the country will earn $1,5 billion in tourism receipts by 2015 on the back of continued upward trend in tourist arrivals. ZTA chief executive officer Mr Karikoga Kaseke told Business Chronicle on Friday that tourist arrival figures were expected to surge from more than 859 000 recorded in the first half to three million by 2015.
Compared to the same period last year, tourist arrivals have increased by 12 percent from 767 393.
He said the growth in tourist arrivals was a testimony of the country’s improved destination image.
“ZTA projects that tourism receipts by 2015 will be at $1,5 billion given the way we are going in terms of tourist arrivals. Tourism receipts are a product of tourist arrivals,” he said.
Tourist inflows into the country were expected to increase following the recent endorsement of Zimbabwe as a safe destination.
Mr Kaseke said the bulk of the tourists would come from Zimbabwe’s major source markets such as Japan, China, United Kingdom, Germany, France and South Africa.
“The bulk of the tourists are from South Africa and that country contributes more than half of our tourists,” he said.
According to figures availed by the UNWTO for the first four months of the year, international tourist arrivals went up by four percent compared to the same period in 2012. This was an increase from 287 million to 298 million which reflects a generally robust tourism sector, despite the on-going economic challenges in some parts of the world.
The UNWTO reports positive growth in all regions, with the strongest growth in Asia and the Pacific (6,3 percent), Europe (4,9 percent) the Middle East (4,7 percent), and weaker growth in the Americas (0,5 percent) and Africa (1,8 percent).
By sub-region, South-East Asia (12 percent) and Central and Eastern Europe (9 percent ) continued to be the star performers while in Africa, the sub-Sahara region registered a 3 percent increase against a 0,1 percent decline for North Africa.
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