The Sunday Mail
Ishemunyoro Chingwere
Business Reporter
A comprehensive strategy to hype Destination Zimbabwe through leveraging on local tourism products has been development by Government with the assistance of stakeholders from the industry.
The strategy, which is dubbed ZimBho, was launched by Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu in Kariba on Thursday.
In essence, the strategy is meant to create a buzz around domestic tourism and help attract both domestic and foreign tourists.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa launched the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy in Victoria Falls on August 6 in Victoria Falls.
The strategy envisages growing the sector to a US$5 billion industry by 2025, up from just over US$1 billion in 2018 and 2019.
It is also premised on a substantial jump in tourism activity, most of which is expected from high spending foreign visitors from traditional source markets.
Addressing delegates at the launch of ZimBho, Minister Ndlovu said the country has not been able to harness the full potential of domestic tourism, and this had also been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Whilst all destinations compete for international tourism as it brings in new money into the economy (forex), domestic tourism assists in inducing expenditure and circulating wealth in the economy,” said Minister Ndlovu.
“Furthermore, domestic tourists become destination ambassadors, assisting in promoting the destination and also encouraging international tourists who are usually keen to visit areas visited by locals.
“Domestic tourism further expands the value chain and helps in building national pride, at the same time promoting national understanding among locals,” he said.
A slew of interventions to boost domestic tourism from Government and stakeholders in the privates sector are being considered.
They include addressing concerns over prohibitive pricing of domestic tourism products.
Businesses are presently being exhorted to consider pushing volumes through reasonable prices rather than seeking profit through high margins.
Government has already waived value added tax (VAT) on all domestic tourism products to reduce prices.
Minister Ndlovu said: “Government will continue looking at ways to make tourism affordable to the nationals and expects to see these incentives translating to price reductions.
Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe (TBCZ) vice president Mr Innocent Manyera conceded that prices need to be reviewed.
“We have had discussions with Government on pricing,” said Mr Manyera.
“We are still discussing and we are still to see how best we can make sure domestic tourism is possible by making sure we have packages that are suitable for our own Zimbabweans.”
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa, who attended the launch, said Zimbabwe can take a leaf from China, whose tourism industry is largely driven by locals.
“. . . I visited, I think 28 of the 33 provinces of China and I saw how the Chinese people have promoted their own domestic tourism,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
“Wherever you go in China, you see the Chinese people visiting their own tourist attractions.
“We want our people to be proud of what God gave us, these are natural resources which God gave to Zimbabweans . . . It’s a beautiful country.”
The launch of ZimBho comes after a US travel agency recently said Zimbabwe is the world’s safest tourist destination.
A former US Department of Defence and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) security expert with years of experience on risk assessment worked with the travel agency, Tourlane, to come up with the guide that tourists use to make decisions on where to travel.
While Zimbabwe scored 35,48 out of a possible 50 points, Thailand came second with 35,33 points in the travel destination index, which was compiled by Tourlane.
According to the agency’s advisory: “In collaboration with our head of safety, Johann Jones, Tourlane has produced a guide to the safest places to travel once bans are lifted.
By looking at key indicators such as Covid-19 cases, health regulations, population density, hours of sunlight, and flight connections to the USA, we produced a guide to help travellers assess risk factors of both countries that are currently open and countries that may open soon.”
Most countries have started to remove the travel restrictions as they adopt a new normal.
Zimbabwe opened its airspace for international travellers last months, but is yet to open its land borders.
