Victoria Falls hotel occupancy up

AVERAGE hotel occupancies in the tourists' favourite Victoria Falls shot to 100 percent during the festive season, up from 80 percent.

However, arrivals from key regional source markets, South Africa and Namibia, took a heavy knock on the continued free-fall of the rand.

Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) president, Mr George Manyumwa said Zimbabwe's occupancies for 2015 ranged between 40 percent and 51 percent.

Year-on-year, occupancies in Victoria Falls were down eight percent by end of November 2015 as both domestic and regional holiday-makers struggled with liquidity.

However, occupancies shot to capacity just after Christmas, thanks to the Victoria Falls International Carnival, a week-long festivity of events that began in the resort town last Tuesday, attracting thousands of tourists from across the globe.

Mr Manyumwa called on stakeholders to introduce such programmes in other tourist destinations like Kariba, Masvingo and the Eastern Highlands to improve tourist arrivals and boost revenues.

"During the festive season, resort towns have high occupancies but there was a decline at Victoria Falls. It is now expensive for Namibians and South Africans who used to constitute a significant market share to frequent the resort," said Mr Manyumwa in an interview.

"Resorts did not have 100 percent occupancies at Christmas but we want to thank the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) for its efforts to promote local tourism. The carnival for instance, has boosted Victoria Falls and we commend that."

According to the HAZ president, arrivals from South Africa and Namibia tumbled from a combined 15 percent share of the market to just three percent due to the rand's relentlessly decline against the US dollar.

Last year,the rand slumped more than 20 percent against the dollar as the US raised interest rates for the first time in almost a decade and due to the slowdown in the Chinese economy, South Africa's biggest trade partner.

Experts say a weaker rand makes Zimbabwe an expensive destination. Zimbabwe uses several foreign currencies but a huge proportion of the transactions are in US-dollars.

Higher US interest rates tend to result in a flight of capital from emerging and frontier markets such as South Africa or Zimbabwe's, causing a depreciation of domestic currencies.

Meanwhile domestic tourism is one of the sector's key focus in 2016.

In light of this, Mr Manyumwa said various promotional packages had been put in place to attract local tourists in the face of cash shortages.

"We know that people do not have money, that is why the sector is coming up with products to attract the local market such as reducing accommodation costs," said Mr Manyumwa.

One of the programmes aimed at promoting domestic tourism is the 'Know your Zimbabwe' campaign which was launched on December 18, 2015 and is meant to sensitise Zimbabweans on the various tourist products available.

Meanwhile, City of Harare is embarking on a massive drive to promote domestic tourism by marketing destination Harare.

City of Harare corporate communications manager, Mr Michael Chideme said the city provides investment opportunities for the tourism sector and the will take advantage of its vast products to contribute to the tourism sector and the country's GDP.

"Harare has everything and shows our tradition and culture as Zimbabweans, our history as well as our natural resources. It has proven it has the capacity to host huge numbers of tourists with its world class facilities," said Mr Chideme.

"Within 30 kilometre radius in any direction, there is an animal sanctuary, which is an advantage. In 2016, we are working with the sector's stakeholders to intensify efforts to market domestic tourism because appreciating what we have as a country starts with us," he said.

The city has hosted religious, sports events and business conferences that have attracted local, regional and international visitors.

Mr Chideme said such events have proven that the city has what it takes to be a tourism hub.

"We are not trying to outdo other destinations, but just promoting our city and others may do so as well. We also have township tourism to talk about in Harare," he said.

Harare is home to some of the country's oldest urban dwellings such as Mbare.

Tourism is one of the sectors expected to drive the 2,7 percent economic growth in 2016.

Tourism and Hospitality Minister Eng Walter Mzembi recently said that tourism is fast becoming one of the pillars of strength for the Zimbabwean economy.

Its vision of contributing US$5 billion to the national GDP by 2020 could be achieved as various initiatives have been put in place to propel its growth.

Tourism revenues soared from US200 million in 2009 to above US$1 billion last year.