Tourist arrivals up 6pc
TOURIST arrivals rose 6 percent to 480 000 in the first three months of the year from the same period a year ago driven by marked increases from the Middle East, Europe and Oceania at 41 percent, 29 percent and 26 percent, respectively.
However, in volume terms Africa contributed the most, accounting for more than 84 percent at 400 290.
Figures released by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) on Tuesday, however, indicated that the Asian market, which has largely been underwhelming, slumped 4 percent.
Though there is an improvement of tourist arrivals from mainland Africa, the local tourism marketing concern is fretting about the stagnation in arrivals from South Africa, which is the country’s biggest source market.
It is believed that addressing delays at Beitbridge Border Post, which experts estimate cost business $35 million annually, and dualising the Beitbridge-Harare will help to increase both human and vehicular traffic.
“The region continues to command the bulk of arrivals (84 percent) into Zimbabwe. The stagnation of arrivals from South Africa is of major concern since it’s Zimbabwe’s major market. This calls for serious consideration in addressing facilitation issues especially at Beitbridge. There is also need to seriously look at upgrading roads, especially the Harare-Beitbridge highway,” said ZTA in a commentary accompanying its 2017 First Quarter Tourism Performance Highlights.
Beitbridge is the gateway of Africa’s biggest economy to the region.
In the review period, arrivals from Europe, which grew 29 percent to 35 381 from 267 433, bucked the downtrend as the tourist arrivals from the continent slumped 8 percent in 2016.
While it remains one of “the greatest overseas markets for the country”, Europe can even contribute more. Neighbouring South Africa, for example, recorded more than 102 000 arrivals from the same continent.
It is the same trend for visitors from the Asian market, particularly from China. First quarter visitors from the East Asian giant to Zimbabwe tanked by more than 43 percent. Conversely, Chinese tourists in South Africa continue to increase.
ZTA said: “Arrivals from the Asian market declined by 4 percent from 14 004 to 13 385 in 2017. The decline mainly came as a result of the poor performance of China (43 percent) in the first three months of the year. On the contrary, Asian arrivals into South Africa are on the increase based on the available figures for January and February 2017. South Africa has already received over 52 319 Asian arrivals and over 21 137 Chinese arrivals in the first two months.”
China used to be in category ‘‘C’’ of the country’s visa regime, which was a put off for most prospective visitors who had to processes their visas in one office in Beijing, not- withstanding the fact that the Asian country has the fourth largest geographical spread in the world at 9,7 million square kilometres.
But on March 3, 2016, the visitor regime, especially for Chinese tourists travelling in groups, was relaxed to make it possible for them to obtain visas on arrivals.
The new policy also covered countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Algeria, Turkey and Cuba. Angola and Madagascar were upgraded to category A, which essentially removed visa controls for all Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.
Some market watchers believe authorities fear that completely relaxing controls will open the floodgates to 1,2 billion souls from China. However, Government says if it can only get 5 percent, or five million tourists, from the 100 million travellers that leave China every year, the country will be able to generate more than $7,5 billion in tourism receipts.