Upgrade facilities to lure more tourists – Minister

TOURISM and Hospitality Industry Minister, Barbara Rwodzi, has implored tourism players in Bulawayo province to upgrade their infrastructure in line with global standards to lure more travellers and increase the value of their earnings.

Yesterday, the ministry, in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), launched the Festive Season Domestic Campaign-ZIMBHO for Bulawayo province and the need to improve tourism infrastructure in the city took centre stage during the launch.

The campaign, which runs from November 6 to January 15, 2024 under the theme: “Every journey leads you home,” is aimed at encouraging locals to visit the country’s tourists destinations this festive season.

Dubbed# Uripi, the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry and ZTA are on a drive to encourage locals to sample the various tourism products offered by tourism players at the different tourists destinations across the country.

The launch comes as the country has recorded a significant rise in foreign receipts but lagging behind on the domestic front. There is therefore a need to boost domestic tourism to complement what is being earned from international tourists.

As part of the campaign, service providers and prime tourist destinations are being encouraged to offer bargain packages for local visitors.

The favourable pricing models are expected to nudge Zimbabweans towards tourist destinations they have long felt are out of their financial reach.

In her remarks during the launch, Minister Rwodzi said Bulawayo province has a lot of tourism sites, which include the Matopos, Khami Ruins, the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) Museum, Chipangali, Blue Hills, Tshabalala Game Reserve, the National Art Gallery and the Natural History Museum amongst others, which can be utilised by locals as visiting destinations during the festive holidays.

She said for visitors to extend their days in the city of Bulawayo, tourism infrastructure, which includes hotels, lodges and all other visiting sites need to be upgraded.

“As the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality, we want Matopos to be upgraded to a very attractive site so that visitors from the United Kingdom (UK), United States of America and other countries will stay for many days in Bulawayo.

“In the City of Bulawayo, we have to upgrade our visiting sites, hotels, lodges and restaurants so that visitors will enjoy staying in Bulawayo more than what they are doing now,” said Minister Rwodzi.

She said at the moment visitors only spend a single day in the province and they move to other places or go back to their countries without staying long.

Minister Rwodzi said the highest number of Zimbabwe’s visitors are from America and between January and September this year 64 000 Americans visited the country followed by 33 000 from the UK with many of these visitors visiting Bulawayo and Victoria Falls.

She said tourists from the UK and America are attracted by Cecil John Rhodes’s grave, which is in the Matopos hence the need to develop the area so that they can stay more days in Bulawayo, which will promote the growth of the city’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Minister Rwodzi said the domestic tourism festive season campaign was part of the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy, which is expected to increase tourism earnings to US$5 billion by 2025. Tourism is one of the key economic pillars and the sector is expected to contribute more towards economic growth in line with the vision to become an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

Minister Rwodzi said the nation should leverage on its culture and heritage as tourism products, which have the potential to boost tourists arrivals.

In her welcoming remarks, which were read on her behalf by the Permanent Secretary Mr Paul Nyoni, Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Judith Ncube said tourism is one of the sectors that the province looks up to for economic sustenance due to its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product and employment creation.

“Bulawayo offers a complete tourism package with its cultural heritage, museums and monuments, parks and wildlife and nearby historic sites.

“If properly harnessed, tourism alone can contribute immensely to the economic development of the province,” she said.

“Bulawayo is a multicultural city inhabited by people speaking different languages as they are from various ethnic groups such as the Ndebele who are a majority, the Shona, Tonga, Kalanga, Venda and Xhosa Sotho among others.”

Minister Ncube said the province is therefore endowed with rich culture and has earned its position as the country’s historical and cultural capital. —-