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By Nesia Mhaka Herald Reporter
The Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) is satisfied with the way the Government promoted domestic and international tourism in 2018 and will leverage on that plinth to maximize tourism receipts for this year.

In an interview in Harare yesterday, HAZ president Mr Innocent Manyera said what is left was leveraging the opportunities provided by the Government policy under the “Zimbabwe is Open for Business” mantra and transform the sector to meet international standards.

“2018 was quite a promising year for the first 10 months of trading, hotels enjoyed business to just above 60 percent capacity utilisation.

“This was mainly driven by the Zimbabwe is open for business Mantra, ease of doing business, Government’s 100-ay plan, election preparedness as well as post-election activities.

“Thanks to Zimbabwe Tourism Authority through the Ministry of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry.

“Some hotels achieved their yearly targets in the 10th month of the year with two months to go with some even going to the extent of paying 13th cheques before year end,” he said.

“Despite the fact that there were some drawbacks during this year like the cholera outbreak which affected most workshops in various cities and brings back a negative mark on the sector’s performance, but we are still aiming for the best in 2019”.

He said HAZ will in 2019 will remain positively and constructively engaging Government on new initiatives to address the macro economic issues in order to unlock the full potential of the year.

“For the Government we really want to see them address macro-economic issues of which as private sector we are in support to safeguard our business.

“We also want to see a shift towards funding of training institutions to enable our service to match international standards,” said Mr Manyera.

He said more focus will be put on issues of environmental cleanliness and road traffic to maintain their standards.