The Sunday Mail
Leroy Dzenga
Senior Reporter
Tourism employs 6,3 million people in Southern Africa.
At least 2,4 million are directly employed, while 3,9 million are employed along the value chain.
Most of these jobs are sustained by international visitors.
However, the coronavirus pandemic curtailed movement of tourists into the region.
Jobs were lost as many establishments closed because of low traffic, high operating costs and a plethora of other challenges.
Livelihoods were wrecked as the industry was left limping.
Zimbabwe, like many other regional countries, was not spared.
Between 2021 and 2021, 37 tourism facilities were closed, while the industry shed more than 9 000 jobs, according to the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry.
Efforts to promote intra-regional travel within SADC and domestic tourism failed to resuscitate the struggling hospitality industry.
While the rest of the world is slowly moving on from the “lost” two years of the once-in-a-generation pandemic, the same cannot be said about the tourism industry.
Experts believe that a new phenomenon called travel anxiety emerged during the pandemic and will likely become pervasive in the post-pandemic era.
It is considered one of the major stumbling blocks.
In an article in the Oxford Journal of Travel Medicine, Professor Gerard Flaherty says: “Absolute restrictions on international travel are slowly beginning to be eased.
“However, the travel experience remains greatly curtailed and onerous, with fewer available flight routes, frequent cancellations, reciprocal travel corridors, travel green lists, health declarations, passenger locator forms, pre-arrival viral screening and post-arrival quarantine in both the destination and, in some cases, the traveller’s home country.”
He said countries listed by the SADC Tourism Programme (2020-2030) as the Top 7 still suffer the effects of travel anxiety.
“South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Mauritius, Namibia and Tanzania, who according to the document account for ‘more than 78 percent of all international tourist arrivals to SADC and almost 85 percent of tourism receipts,’ are yet to regain their former tourism lustre,” he said.
New Packages
Local tourism players are currently introducing innovative hospitality packages to lure more visitors and stimulate a quick recovery.
One such innovation was the introduction of hybrid packages.
These are holiday packages that transcend national borders and are geared to add value to the visitor’s tour.
Fastjet, a regional low-cost airline, is experimenting with this new idea.
Recently, the airline launched a new route between Victoria Falls and the Kruger-Mpumalanga International Airport in South Africa.
The route is being serviced by an Embraer 145, which accommodates 50 passengers in the main cabin.
A tourist from overseas can now fly into Victoria Falls — a destination that is acclaimed in global tourism — and proceed to enjoy the wilderness in the vast depths of the two million-hectare Kruger National Park in South Africa.
Speaking to The Sunday Mail after the launch of the new route, Fastjet chief commercial officer Mr Julian Edmunds said: “We are confident that this route will work. The last two years have taught us that we can’t predict everything, but we have done the research and we think there is sustainable demand.
“I have been in tourism aviation my whole working life.
“I started as a tour operator selling tourism holiday packages from the United Kingdom to Zimbabwe in 1988.
“What we have found is that in those days, we used to sell one country.
“What we are seeing now is that people need multi-country itineraries.
“They want a departure from the traditional holidays.”
Hospitality industry players in Victoria Falls agree. Mr Emmanuel Tivatyi, general manager of Love for Africa, a company that crafts bespoke travel plans and bookings for tourists, said the introduction of tourism-focused flights within SADC will leave tourists with more disposable funds to spend.
“I can’t really explain how important this route is. It now links Victoria Falls and Kruger.
“Half the time it has always been clients had to go through Livingstone to fly to Kruger.
“Alternatively, they had been flying to Kruger via Johannesburg.
“This is a game-changer, Kruger is the biggest game park in South Africa and being able to connect to it will add value to us,” said Mr Tivatyi.
“Dr Matifadza Nyazema, who owns Mbano Manor, a luxury boutique hotel in Victoria Falls, said beyond offering its beauty, Victoria Falls is morphing into a hub for travellers.
“This is an exciting time not just for Victoria Falls but Zimbabwe. It is all about opening up the country to more tourists, to more accessibility, especially in these times.
“Victoria Falls is becoming a travel hub, meaning you can fly to Johannesburg, Harare, Kruger, Livingstone from Victoria Falls.
“We look forward to having more of these routes. We are recovering as an industry and such ideas can help us get to where we want to get faster,” she said.
The SADC protocol on tourism came into effect in 1998.
It sets out the region’s objective to build upon its potential as a tourist destination.
“SADC intends to ensure even distribution of tourism development throughout the region and to create a favourable environment for tourism, thereby using tourism as a vehicle for socio-economic development.
“To facilitate these plans, member states agree to encourage private sector involvement in the industry through incentives, infrastructure and a regulatory framework that encourages their participation,” reads the protocol in part.
SADC recently adopted a masterplan for tourism growth between 2020 and 2030.
Among the key issues in the masterplan was improving the flow of tourist traffic in the region.
“One of our goals is to stimulate visitor movement and flow to and within the region. This can be done through harmonising visas, improving border posts, improving immigration services,” the masterplan reads.
