NEW: Fast-food chain opens tourism attraction facility in Bulawayo

FAST food chain, Chicken Hut, which recently opened in Bulawayo has added a tourism attraction coffee facility at the city’s branch with a view to promote growth of the tourism sector.

The outlet, which is called ‘Coffee Republik’ is the third in the country so far after establishment of the first outlet in Harare in 2019 before subsequently opening the second in Kwekwe.

Coffee Republik is a brand that aims at fostering and attracting tourists into the country on account that some tourists mainly from continental Europe are accustomed to drinking coffee rather than tea.

The latest Coffee Republik outlet was officially launched in Bulawayo last Friday.
Chicken Hut spokesperson, Mr Thandolwenkosi Dube, said: “To date Coffee Republik has three stores with the latest one being Bulawayo, which opened today.

“Plans are in the pipeline to roll out other outlets in Victoria Falls and Gweru soon and Coffee Republik is using coffee as a driver for local tourism.

“Zimbabwe is amongst the top 10 travel destinations in Africa, yet many Zimbabweans have not explored and experienced what the country offers.”

Mr Dube said so far coffee was the most traded commodity after oil with over two billion cups of coffee consumed per day across the globe.

“Like other leading coffee brands across the world, coffee is used to make a difference, some brands use a percentage of coffee sales in support of charitable or humanitarian driven acts,” said Mr Dube.

In a separate interview, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) acting chief executive officer Mr Givemore Chidzidzi said his organisation welcomes the latest development by Coffee Republik, which adds diversity to the culinary, food and beverage experience.

“As the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, we welcome such a development which adds diversity to the culinary, food and beverages experience.

“In Zimbabwe, the uptake of coffee is low as people drink tea to such an extent that people call it tea.
“So, l think using such coffee outlets like Coffee Republik, it actually shows we are ready for a diversity of markets because if you look at visitors from continental Europe, there are actually more into coffee than into tea,” he said.

“So, coffee drinking is quite synonymous with travel and tourism. Those are the things that attract people to spend in the economy.

“As ZTA, we are happy that we have operators that are expanding in line with our thrust to grow the tourism industry and increase their revenue from tourism products. It even increases the attractiveness of Zimbabwe as a destination,” said Mr Chidzidzi.

He said establishing such operations was in line with the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), a five-year macro-economic policy that the Government has enunciated to promote the growth and development of the economy through employment and wealth creation, and the stimulation of productivity across all sectors as the country moves towards an upper middle-income economy by 2030. The economic blue-print anchoring the economy between 2021 and 2025.-The Chronicle