‘Tourism products must not be elitist’

KWEKWE Hoteliers Association chairperson and prominent businessman, Dr Solomon Matsa, says tourism products must not be elitist as he implored potential investors to exploit opportunities in under-utilised local tourism destinations to provide locals with more affordable tourism packages.

In a wide-ranging interview, Dr Matsa, who owns King Solomon Hotel in Kwekwe, said Zimbabwe was endowed with beautiful sceneries that are being underutilised, hence the need to invest in them to ensure everyone can afford to visit the facilities and broaden domestic tourism earnings.

“It’s disheartening that as Zimbabweans, we don’t even know our local tourism attractions yet we have a lot of them and some of them are being underutilised,” he said.

“For example, we have Gandavaroyi Falls and Mafungautsi Plateau as well as the hot springs in Gokwe where I hear there are beautiful natural scenes.

“If one invests in those places, there surely will be no need for one to go to Victoria Falls because you have a tourism attraction already.”

Victoria Falls

Dr Matsa, who is also the Business Economic Empowerment Forum (BEEF) president, said Zimbabweans need to change the narrative about tourism being an activity of those “with big monies”.

“It’s a wrong mindset that needs to be changed that tourism is expensive and elitist. I believe in hard work and play-hard theory.

“We need to create different tourism destinations that are cheap, affordable and can accommodate everyone from the poorest to the richest,” he said.

“This can be done if we utilise tourism destinations that are dotted around the country.”
Dr Matsa gave an example of Sun City Resort in South Africa saying the resort town can accommodate everyone from the poorest to the richest.

“In Sun City you can find a room going for R3 000 and you can find another going for R100 000, but in the same area. That is the approach we should also take that everyone is included and no one and no place should be left behind,” he said.

Dr Matsa said investors can team up in developing untapped tourism attractions to turn them into destinations of repute.
He said he was investing in Binga as well as expanding his King Solomon Hotel.

“I am currently investing in Binga where I am working with other investors to ensure that Binga becomes a tourist attraction of repute,” he said.

“That is how Zimbabweans must do it instead of going alone because the task might become too big for one investor.”
Dr Matsa also has a piece of advice for would-be investors.

“When I took over the hotel, it had 28 rooms but there are now 53 rooms. We are in the process of adding 80 more rooms so that we can have about 150 rooms,” he said.

“That is how you start a business instead of wanting to start big, you risk choking.”
Dr Matsa is a businessman of repute who runs several companies in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, among others.

His business interests include gas, hospitality and transport among others.-chronicle.cl.zw