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Business Reporter

AVERAGE occupancy rates in local hotels were “more than expected” during the festive season, according to the Zimbabwe Business Council (ZBC) chairperson Paul Matamisa, with the holiday-season traffic largely boosted by domestic travel.

The occupancy rates reached 55 percent from December 1, 2022, to January 1, 2023, Mr Matamisa said, an increase from 44 percent during the same period a season earlier.

The average occupancy rates in resort places were 98 percent, led by Victoria Falls, the country’s prime tourism destination while city hotel rates averaged 27 percent.

“The occupancy levels were more than expected in both sectors,” said Mr Matamisa in an interview.

“Resort and city hotels recorded 98 percent and 27 percent occupancy rates, respectively, for the duration of December 1 to January 2.”

A private resort operator in Nyanga in eastern Zimbabwe Mr Farai Muvirimi said the past two holidays “were the best” for his business in three years. “It was the best period of business since the Covid–19,” he said. “For the first time, I had to tell clients that our chalets and guest houses are fully booked for the period of December 22 to January 4. It has given us hope after a torrid three years of business.”

Domestic travel has largely sustained local tourism since 2020 when global tourism came to a halt after countries sealed borders to contain the spread of Covid-19.

The ban on travel and public conferences significantly suffocated the global tourism industry and in 2020, international arrivals plunged by 73 percent from pre-pandemic levels in 2019, causing estimated losses of US$2,4 trillion in tourism and related sectors, according to the report by the UN’s World Tourism Organisation

In preparation for the anticipated Covid-19 boom, many local tourism operators are already investing in the refurbishment and expansion of their facilities.

Others are setting up new facilities. About US$300 million was invested into the sector in 2022, according to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, putting on a solid footing post-Covid-19.

The money was largely spent on the construction of new hospitality facilities such as lodges and hotels as well as renovations. 

The investments, from both foreign and local investors, were largely concentrated in Victoria Falls and Ganarezhou National Park.

In an interview, chairman of the Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe, Matebeleland chapter Mr Anarld Musonza said: “People are refining their products…there are also some greenfield projects coming through within the accommodation sector.”

Economist Ms Tracy Dube said given the Covid-19-induced disturbances experienced in the tourism sector, achieving a US$5 billion tourism economy by 2025 “needs a lot of hard work by all stakeholders.” 

“Although the statistics given by ZTA are showing significant improvement in terms of tourism growth, the country still has a mammoth task to achieve the US$5 billion tourism economy.

“If we look at the sector’s receipts for the period January to September (although there is a remarkable improvement from the same period in 2021), one can conclude that the targeted US$5 billion economy is difficult to achieve by 2025.”

“By and large, we foresee a situation where the tourism economy would have grown to US$3 billion by 2025 if stakeholders continue working in unison to improve the industry’s contribution to the gross domestic product,” Mr Dube added.