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Adelaide Moyo Victoria Falls Reporter
HOTELIERS and tour operators in Victoria Falls recorded brisk business during the Heroes and Defence Forces holidays with dozens of tourists flooding the resort town. Operators said scores of visitors started trickling in on Saturday. Khanondo Safaris general manager Ben Tessa said business had picked up during the holidays.
“We’re quite impressed with the number of clients we handled during the holiday although we’re still compiling final figures.
“We had an increase in the number of clients judging by the bookings we made on our various activities during the four days,” he said.
Employers’ Association of Tourism Operators president Clement Mukwasi also said operators were happy with the rise in the number of clients.
“We’ve recorded a three percent increase in the number of customers who booked for activities with us. Business was really good in the last few days compared to the past months where there had been subdued bookings,” he said.
There have been concerns over the subdued performance of the tourism industry in the first half of the year due to negative publicity by the Western media and the effects of the Ebola scare in some West African countries.
Zimbabwe has not recorded any Ebola case since the dreaded outbreak early last year.
Chairperson of Hotels Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) Trythings Mutyandasvika recently said there was a 25 percent decrease in hotel bookings as people now prefer camping than staying in hotels.
The industry expects a 15 percent increase in arrivals, especially from Europeans, in the resort town in the last quarter of the year.
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