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Tapiwanashe Mangwiro Senior Business Reporter

PLAYERS in Zimbabwe’s tourism sector continue to invest in the refurbishment of hospitality facilities to drive accelerated recovery in order to bounce back from the dire straits the industry was plunged into by the Covid-19 pandemic about two years ago.

According to the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, tourism generated US$672,9 million last year, representing 133 percent growth in earnings from US$288,8 million realised in 2021, which is in large part due to the removal of Covid-19 travel restrictions worldwide.

Tourist arrivals also more than doubled to 895 338 last year, from 340 000 in 2021, a rebound of over 160 percent

And players have been investing continuously to claw back lost ground following the outbreak of Covid-19, which caused national shutdowns. To that end, Hwange Safari Lodge’s first phase of a major refurbishment programme is on track, with 40 standard rooms now complete and already in service.

A further 18 rooms including two executive suites will be completed by March 2023, which will bring the total number of rooms refurbished to 58 in total by the end of the first quarter of the current year.

The African Sun Limited chief executive officer, Peter Saungweme, said the group’s refurbishment programme was being undertaken at a cost of at least US$4 million under broadly two phases.

“The first phase would focus on renovation of the lodge’s entire 100 rooms, whilst the second phase would focus on renovation of the key public areas namely the restaurant, guest lounge and the bar,” he said.

The multi-million-dollar refurbishment of Harare’s five-star Meikles Hotel, which is a two-year process, commenced last year. The hotel is looking to improve its accessibility and visibility to customers.

Meikles Hotel general manager Tinashe Munjoma said the three-phase programme to carry out a major redevelopment of selected key areas had been planned since the acquisition of the hotel in 2020 by ASB Hospitality.

The renovations will take two years under a three-phase programme, which will see the construction of a suspended pool on the mezzanine floor adjacent to the La Fontaine. This phase is likely to take up to 9 months according to the hotel’s general manager.

A cumulative US$300 million was invested in the esector in 2022 as various lodges, hotels and game parks have been built or renovated at different levels across the country.

Investments came from both local and foreign investors.

The investment went towards new facilities in restaurants, hotels, lodges, safaris and game parks dominating.

Tourism Business council chairman Paul Matamisa said there have been investments in the sector as they prepared for post covid operations.

“We surely have seen a number of investments in the sector, be it new resorts or upgrading of the existing ones in order to stay abreast with the current trends. We have seen new lodges around the country and many game parks have been upgraded across the country,” Matamisa said.

Market reports say, the Zesa Pension Fund is currently quietly building a four-star hotel and conference centre in Victoria Falls that will be managed by Cresta Hotels.

 Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) Matabeleland chapter chairman Anald Musonza said, “The region has been on a recovery path and yes, I can confirm that a lot of investment happened in the just-ended year. I cannot quantify the amount but building a 4 or 5-star lodge is no small feat and it is not cheap as well”.

The tourism industry was the hardest hit by measures rolled out by the Government to contain the spread of Covid-19 as global economies also imposed travel restrictions in line with the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.

Economist Mrs Tracy Dube said given the Covid-19-induced disturbances experienced in the tourism sector, achieving a US$5 billion tourism economy by 2025  now needed 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 though there is a remarkable improvement from the same period last year, one is tempted to conclude that the targeted US$5 billion economy is far to achieve by 2025 largely on account of the negative impact of Covid-19.

“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,” she said.

Tourism is Zimbabwe’s third economic mainstay after mining and agriculture presently contributing about US$1,9 billion to Zimbabwe’s GDP.