The Sunday Mail
Business Reporters
The tourism sector, one of the country’s key economic pillars, is losing substantial revenue in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
Estimates suggest that hundreds of millions of dollars might be lost by the time the virus is contained.
The country’s source markets in Europe and Asia have issued travel restrictions for their citizens, as the world grapples to contain the disease that has since been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Last week, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecast that global airlines stand to lose US$113 billion in air ticket sales — themselves a major driver of world tourism — if the disease continues to spread.
The projected loss, which is similar to the haemorrhage experienced during the 2008 global financial crisis, signifies a 19 percent knock.
Although Zimbabwe still had no confirmed case by the end of last week, governments from across Europe have called on their citizenry to cancel non-urgent travel.
They have further warned the outbreak could lead to months of serious disruptions.
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) last week embarked on a nationwide tour to engage industry players on how to respond to the scourge.
Without quantifying the size of the projected loss, ZTA acting chief executive officer Mr Givemore Chidzidzi conceded that the sector is currently reeling from the global health emergency.
“. . . obviously the tourism industry is one of the major affected sectors of the economy because you know with tourism you are dealing with the movement of people,” said Mr Chidzidzi in an update by the ZTA.
“It (tourism) is unlike other sectors of the economy where people just stop distributing goods and they warehouse them, with tourism people have to move,” he said.
Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) president Mr Clive Chinwada said the local sector has been hit hard by the cancellations.
He could not, however, quantify the projected losses.
“A number of international organisations have suspended international travels, as a result, international conferences and individual visits are being postponed or cancelled and this affects hotels mainly in our prime international destination of Victoria Falls in a great way,” said the HAZ president.
He said the extent of postponed and cancelled bookings will begin to manifest in the medium term.
Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe’s (TBCZ) Mrs Barbra Murasiranwa said the sector was facing challenging times, but as private sector players, they had gone a step further to engage source markets on measures taken to guarantee visitors’ safety.
“As the private sector, we are already making efforts to ensure that we work with Government and all the other stakeholders in coming up with solutions and preventative measures to make us ready,” said Mrs Murasiranwa.
“As an industry, we are communicating with our agencies, we are communicating with our source markets to ensure that they know what we are doing,” she said.
While large tourism sector players who draw most of their clientele from international visitors are reeling, those who have anchored their businesses on local tourists are not feeling the pinch as travel remains normal.
An official from Montclair Hotel in Nyanga said the hotel has not been affected by cancellations or postponements as yet.
International visitors account for less than one percent of the hotel’s bookings.
“We have only had one booking cancelled and it is someone from Europe, but we have not really been affected since many of our bookings are by locals,” said the hotel’s general manager, Mr Brian Nyakutombwa.
