Council calls for reconfiguration of the national tourism industry
The Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe (TBCZ) has called on authorities to reconfigure the country’s tourism sector to capture all the revenues generated through the industry.
In an interview, TBCZ president Wengayi Nhau said under the current scenario most of the revenue coming through tourism activities was being recorded in other sectors resulting in the sector not fully realising its revenue potential.
Four years ago, the Government launched the US$5 billion tourism economy by next year, which Nhau said was achievable or can be surpassed if all the revenues generated through the sector were accounted into the sector.
Official figures from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority indicate that the sector’s receipts increased by 22 percent last year to reach US$1,1 billion from US$911 million in 2022.
“Having these figures that we are talking about is one thing and then again having the real figure is another thing. Tourism is also to a greater extent not being treated fairly, not because of anyone’s fault.
“When we look at tourism economy, our problem is we are only looking at what we saw in terms of how much tourism operators have banked or have declared and all those things.
“But for example, every foreign person from most I would say 98 percent of the western countries and outside of SADC and the rest of the world, they pay what is called a visa fee on arrival.
“And these people are coming for tourism purposes.
“An average of US$30 per person per entry is what they pay as a visa fee.
“That money is collected by immigration and goes to the Treasury, but it is not captured as tourism revenue,” he said, adding that there is also the issue of hunting revenue which was being captured under agriculture because hunting is done on farms.
“Some of the revenue is not captured as tourism revenue, it is captured as agriculture revenue.
“So, the first thing that we need to do, it’s a multi-pronged approach- we need to reconfigure our industry so that we capture what is rightfully ours,” said Nhau.
In 2022, the Government launched the Zimbabwe Tourism Satelite Account System expected to assist the country in measuring the contribution of the tourism sector to the national economy.
“We have the tourism settlement accounting system that was initiated that we now need to finalise so that the tourism settlement accounting system will capture and take care of most of the things that we are concerned about in terms of revenue,” he said.
ebusinessweekly
