Chronicle Editor
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
TOURISM industry players have been urged to revamp their pricing models as the current charges are affecting bookings and services of the country’s hospitality’s sector.
The call aims to restore normalcy and bolster the sector’s competitiveness within the region.
Concerns have been raised at various fora about expensive rates charged by hotels and tourism operators in the country, especially in Victoria Falls compared to neighbouring places such as Livingstone in Zambia and Kasane in Botswana, among other destinations.
This comes amid revelations that a majority of tourists prefer landing at the Victoria Falls International Airport, then cross to Livingstone in Zambia due to the high charges being demanded by tour operators in the resort city.
Responding to questions from tourism sector players during a stakeholder consultative workshop on the Tourism Amendment Bill in Bulawayo on Wednesday, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Barbara Rwodzi expressed her concern over the pricing model.
The minister commended the Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) for engaging a consultant to come up with solutions to the pricing model by players.
“I think this could be the first province that has told us that on their own they have come up with an initiative on how pricing can be better in the region. It’s so painful what we see in Victoria Falls, you may not be seeing it or knowing it,” she said.
“We have the biggest airport in the KAZA region to the extent that international airlines can only land in Victoria Falls, they cannot land in Kasane, Katima Mulilo (City in Namibia), Livingstone, and neither in Angola. They can only land in Zimbabwe, Victoria Falls, but when they land, we see people flocking to Livingstone and other places because they say it’s cheaper to sleep in other places like Livingstone than in Victoria Falls, that’s painful.”
Minister Rwodzi said some operators in Victoria Falls were not bothered, preferring to settle for a few tourists willing to pay their rates.
She said as the Government they were very much affected in terms of the numbers.
“We have a lot of tourist attraction places such as the Great Zimbabwe and a number here in Bulawayo, but our numbers are not good. People prefer to land in Victoria Falls, go sleep in Livingstone and come back to view the falls and go back to sleep in Livingstone,” she said.
“In the Kaza region we have agreed as Ministers through our Presidents that we no longer fight about anything, particularly Zimbabwe and Zambia, we share a world wonder the Victoria Falls. If our prices do not improve it will greatly affect our sector.”
The minister pledged her full support to HAZ which was working on addressing the pricing issue, stating that players should bring forward factors that were contributing to their high pricing model so that together they look for solutions.
She said gone are the days for the tourism sector players to focus on profiteering, but should go back to basics and do business properly.
HAZ second vice-president and chairperson of the Bulawayo Chapter, Mr Kudzai Ratisai said they recently engaged a consultant and were working on coming up with solutions to the pricing model.
“As HAZ we are looking at strengthening our structures and recently using a consultant from Europe they said to us one of our biggest problems was pricing. They told us for more people to come to Zimbabwe, we need to deal with this elephant in the room,” said Mr Ratisai.
“Then we spoke among ourselves as players to say what is the problem and we resolved that we need to be transparent. We also suggested that we need to get an economist to work on our numbers so that we are able to get disclosers from our organisations to be able to say which are the drivers in terms of costs and how can we as a destination be able to price favourably.” He said HAZ’s goal was to increase the length of the average stay in Zimbabwe as they were competing with other nations to attract more tourists.
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