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Business Correspondent

Low tourist volumes in the resort town of Victoria Falls has seen hotel occupancies declined 5 percent in the five months to May months to same period prior year. Victoria Falls occupancies declined 8 percent in the first quarter of the year slipping further to 5 percent but the tourism industry remains optimistic that things will improve and close nearer to the 50 percent forecast growth in occupancy by year end.In response to emailed questions, Zimbabwe Council of Tourism Chief Executive Paul Matamisa said a number of factors are contributing to the current decline.

“Hotel occupancies are showing about 5 percent decline compared to previous year same period. This could be due to a number of reasons including the Brand issues, Destination Competitiveness, the decline of the South African business and the regional travellers affected by the currency differentiation, the Cash Crisis and others,” he said.

Overall, hotel occupancy level of the Zimbabwean tourism industry remained depressed at around 40 percent in the first quarter of the year.

Mr Matamisa said Zimbabwe needs to manage and tackle issues that affect tourism in order to deter further declines in tourist volumes.

“Outlook remains good and positive provided we manage our issues well,” he said.

The tourism sector has been engaging Reserve bank of Zimbabwe to introduce incentives in the hotel industry which include promoting the use of rand for payments in hotels in a bid to lure clients through making Zimbabwe a comparatively cheaper destination thereby increasing hotel occupancy level.

Last year arrivals from South Africa and Namibia tumbled from a combined 15 percent share of the market to just 3 percent due to the rand’s relentlessly decline against the US dollar and the rand slumped more than 20 percent against the dollar. This has in turn made Zimbabwe an expensive destination.