Conferences bring tourism boom to Vic Falls

Leonard Ncube

Victoria Falls Bureau

While January and February have typically been sleepy months for Victoria Falls’ tourism industry, a marked increase in conferences is rewriting the script.

The Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events (Mice) concept is paying dividends, attracting both local and international visitors during a traditionally low season.

Local tourism players are buzzing with optimism. The past two weeks have seen a hive of activity in hotels, restaurants and excursion providers, all benefiting from the conferences.

This early year surge bodes well for the rest of 2024, potentially setting the stage for a record-breaking tourism season.

Traditionally, tourism takes a dip soon after the festive season, with arrivals and occupancies picking up during the Easter holidays running into winter when international tourists start trickling in.

Between last Monday and Friday, Victoria Falls hosted the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) Social Dialogue Retreat, which had more than 200 participants, some of them foreign delegates.

The Judicial Service Commission will host a Regional Symposium on Electoral Justice in the city between January 31 and February 2. The conference is organised by the Africa Electoral Justice Network and brings together jurists, legal experts and scholars from across the region.

Next month, there will be the 56 Session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa between February 28 and March 5.

The destination, which is the country’s tourism capital, is riding on the strength of the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy, launched by President Mnangagwa in August 2020 to re-start the sector after having been heavily crippled by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The strategy seeks to grow the tourism sector to a US$5 billion industry by 2025.

It is anchored on Zimbabwe’s vision to be a prime international tourist destination based on the judicious and sustainable exploitation of the unique assets of nature, culture, heritage and the built environment.

In addition, it is informed by the Government’s Vision 2030 to transform Zimbabwe into an upper-middle-income society by 2030.

Ms Shelly Cox, the coordinator of the We Are Victoria Falls Initiative, said the destination is slowly regaining its lustre.

“There appears to be a number of conferences, local and international, which are lined up during this period and also during the year. This reflects strong confidence in the destination,” said Ms Cox.

Although some activities such as helicopter flights and game drives are affected by the rains, there is a significant presence of foreign tourists in the city. Some hotels are reportedly enjoying around 50 percent occupancy.

Tourism executives said there has been a significant presence of people travelling in groups, especially from India for religious tourism. Boat cruises and tours of the falls have also been on a high.

Employers Association for the Tourism and Safari Operators chairperson Mr Clement Mukwasi said there is a lot of renewed interest in the destination.

“January bookings have been aided by meetings and conferences. We can hardly notice this year’s low season if these conferences continue. Yes, walk-ins and international tourists are few, as is the norm for this time where arrivals go down to as low as 30 percent, but we see a lot of renewed interest in destination Victoria Falls and we are excited about the year ahead,” he said.

Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe chairperson Mr Wengayi Nhau said the month of January has been good for tourism.

“Ordinarily this is a month which is very quiet after the festive season, but interestingly this year around, we seem to have more traffic than usual. This is primarily because of the deliberate policy by Government with regards to meetings being taken out of Harare to different holiday resorts to support domestic tourism,” he said.

Mr Nhau said there was need to support domestic tourism.

“So yes, Mice is becoming a big thing in Zimbabwe in terms of business opportunities. This idea of taking conferences outside Harare was mooted as we were trying to revive the tourism sector after the Covid-19 pandemic and so January has been busy in Victoria Falls, which looks good going forward.

“It’s going to dovetail very well with the peak season, which is normally winter time and occupancies are promising. It looks like nothing will be in our way.”

According to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) quarterly economic review for the three months to September 2023, tourist arrivals increased by 41,9 percent to 494 878, compared to 348 559 recorded in the comparable period in 2022.

Tourism receipts increased by 24 percent to US$272,26 million in the same period from US$219,45 million achieved during the previous quarter of the same year, largely as a result of improved tourist arrivals. A total of US$300 million was poured into investments in the sector.

New facilities are being developed including the US$64 million 160-room hotel being set up by Lamcent Capital, a local equity investment company, and the Victoria Falls City Council.

Hilton, a multinational hotel brand and hospitality company, that manages and franchises will run the hotel.

Property investment company Mashonaland Holdings, with interests in health, retail and commercial, is spearheading construction of an upmarket hotel in partnership with Time Hotels.

The ZESA Pension Fund is also building a four-star hotel and conference centre in partnership with Cresta Hotels