Tourism receipts hit US$1bn in 2022

MEASURES instituted by the Government and the private sector to expedite the recovery of the tourism industry are bearing fruit as 2022 revenues for the sector reached US$1 billion.

As part of efforts to push the recovery of the sector post-Covid-19, the Government launched the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy in 2020, which sparked the growth of the sector last year.

The Minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu, confirmed the development during an engagement with tourism players in Victoria Falls this weekend.

“Post the devastating effects of the Covid19 pandemic, the country has witnessed a 174 percent increase in tourist arrivals from 380 820 in 2021 to 1,043,781 in 2022,” said Ndlovu.

“These translated to a 129 percent increase in receipts which saw the country almost reaching a US$1 billion mark in 2022 as we rose from US$396,9 million to US$910,9 million.”

Ndlovu called for more investment in the industry and stressed the importance of developing a wide variety of tourism products to broaden the country’s appeal as a destination to the world.

Investments in the sector rose 239 percent to US$306,7 million last year from US$90,4 million in 2021.

“As we engage in these strategic sessions, special attention must be placed on how to leverage our competitive advantages to market tours that promote the culture and heritage of the people of Zimbabwe,” he said.

Tourism stakeholders pledged commitment towards continuously working for the development of the tourism industry.

Tourism sector executive, Chipo Mandela said: “We have witnessed phenomenal growth of the tourism sector in 2022, which is quite encouraging.

We will continue pushing for the attainment of the US$5 billion tourism industry by 2025. This target is quite achievable.”

However, players in the tourism sector fear a bad state of the road network will negatively impact tourism.

They have since implored authorities to quickly attend to the situation.

They said poor roads in the city, together with the heavily damaged Bulawayo-Victora Falls Road and Harare-Chirundu and Kariba roads were a threat to tourism.

Tourism players have implored the Government to make the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road and Harare-Kariba Road a priority and declare a state of emergency.

Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) chairperson, Chiku Mulinde, said the industry is concerned that the domestic market, as well as self-drives from South Africa are severely affected because of the state of these roads.

Hwange and Victoria Falls are almost isolated from the rest of the country which affects domestic tourism especially this time of the year when international arrivals are low as it is off peak.

“We have seen potholes have developed locally but the 40km stretch into Hwange and between Gwayi and Lupane is the worst.

“Some parts of the road have virtually disappeared and this poses a danger to self-drive tourists and citizens.

“The road is now an unacceptable death trap and is already affecting domestic tourism. We appreciate that the entire highway has been earmarked for rehabilitation and that repair works are to be done after the rainy season,” said Mulinde.

“We have heard many promises to fix it but it has reached a point requiring urgent action as the road is now in a very bad state and should be declared a state of emergency so as to prioritise and possibly bring forward the rehabilitation programme.”

Suppliers to the tourism industry from outside the destination are also negatively affected due to the frequency of breakdowns as a result of the state of the road.

“It must be noted that the state of affairs is impacting negatively to Hwange and Victoria Falls as the two destinations in Matabeleland North are now less attractive. The impact of costs to suppliers is further increased due to wear and tear.

“Domestic tourism has slowed down due to road conditions and there is danger of losing income because the destination is now less attractive to road users.

Our appeal as HAZ is to have this important road declared a state of emergency and rehabilitated as soon as possible to enable the tourism business to recover post Covid,” he said.

The Government is currently consulting on ways to align the National Tourism Policy Vision 2030.