TOURISM is now assuming its role as a major driver of economic development and employment, with this spreading into other parts of the country from the centre around Victoria Falls and the near-by game areas, as word about Zimbabwe’s attractions gets around.
The peacefulness of the country, and its fairly high levels of security, are obviously critical as tourists appreciate a calm and friendly atmosphere.
Zimbabwe was demonised by the Western press after it embarked on the land reform programme, and regrettably this affected tourist arrivals.
But as we have buckled down and got on with building our country, especially under the Second Republic, this prurient interest has largely gone and been replaced by more specialised interests – a good place to visit and a good place to look at investment opportunities.
The latest profile group is composed of 45 tycoons from Dubai and the United States who arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday on a joint trip that seems to be partly holiday and partly business.
At the moment they are on the holiday part, and while welcomed at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Professor Amon Murwira and Permanent Secretary for Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Dr Takaruza Munyanyiwa, they have been given their privacy.
That is another service, among the many we offer, that can be laid on. There are some prominent and famous people who want a decent break in Africa, but do not need to be in a fishbowl, or followed around by paparazzi.
So our tourism industry, with support, can arrange what amounts to near anonymity, and that is obviously appreciated.
We have seen some very famous people, including apparently two former US presidents, who managed to have the quiet break they wanted.
The business leaders in the latest high-profile group appear to have combined what will be a hard look at the range of business and investment opportunities later in their visit with a decent holiday.
We have had both in the past, high-profile investors and high-profile tourists, but this appears to be one of the first times when a group has combined their visit.
One interesting point that is now arising is that there are high-end specialist tourism operators, including these specialist game ranches, who have studied their markets very carefully and tailored their facilities to make a good match with expectations.
This sort of attention to detail is important.
Zimbabwe, as it keeps growing its tourism, needs to cater for several types of markets and many different aspirations of tourists.
Tourism, obviously, is made up of a lot of individuals visiting and we need to make sure every individual goes home with their expectations exceeded. We can talk a lot about advertising and marketing, and that helps, but in the end word of mouth is easily the most effective recommendation, hence the need to make sure that a lot of very satisfied visitors are spreading the right word of mouth.
Tourism is a good industry to build up. In terms of investment it has a lower investment per dollar of income than most industries, at least when you have the natural resources and other attractions that bring in visitors, so the investment is adding the services they want, not starting from scratch.
It is also a labour-intensive industry, so it creates jobs. Of course those in the jobs need to have skills, but so long as they have a reasonable education they can be trained fairly quickly, and specialist training, all the way to university degree level, is now available.
It is obviously a help that most Zimbabweans are fluent in the most important international language, although this should not stop them adding to their language skills.
Even if a visitor can get by in English, it is an extra courtesy, and an extra attraction, if the Zimbabweans looking after them know something of their language and culture so they can add that little bit more.
Everyone likes to be thought of as special, not just the rich and famous, and our egalitarian courtesy needs to be extended to all.
Provincial Ministers have been making pitches for the tourism industry to extend its range and take up the attractions of the entire country, and the communities and cultures we have.
This is important as we keep expanding the industry, so that the tourists can see Zimbabwe and meet Zimbabweans, not just keep bumping into each other.
Even if many want to see the Victoria Falls for example, we need to market other places to see, places to stay and things to do to make up a fortnight holiday, or even a month-long holiday.
Some of that will require detailed cooperation within the industry, and Government support may be crucial here, so that any traveller can easily assemble the sort of visit and holiday they would like.
But already tourism has met its target for this year of US$5 billion income with two months to go, and already generates more than 12 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.
Economists are quietly confident that we can achieve a growth rate of 33 percent a year for the next five years, and that is spectacular growth.
Fortunately, we have been fixing up the basic infrastructure such as the international airports and the land border posts so that visitors can be processed courteously at speed as the Government keeps making sure it provides a secure base the industry needs.
This post was originally published on here
