Urgent need to expand Byo tourism infrastructure

THE Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) has called for increased investment in hotels and conference centres construction in Bulawayo to enhance the city’s tourism attractiveness.

The city which is home to the country’s prime trade showcase, the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF), has limited hotels and conference centres and therefore cannot accommodate large numbers, said ZTA executive director, Mr Reason Machigere. This year’s trade fair is scheduled to be held next month.

The need to expand tourism infrastructure in the City of Kings came under spotlight during the recent Tourism and Transport Infrastructure Finance Conference that was hosted by the country here as a key highlight of the country’s participation at the ongoing Expo 2020 Dubai.

“Bulawayo hosts our annual trade event, the ZITF but come trade fair time, some of the visitors have to be accommodated in private homes because there are few hotels and lodges,” he said.

Mr Machigere said Bulawayo therefore urgently needs additional hotels, lodges and confenrence centres to accommodate large numbers of visitors especially during big events such as the ZITF.

“At the moment Harare compares favourably with Victoria Falls in terms of conferencing tourism occupancies and is the conferencing destination,” he said.

Mr Machigere said Zimbabwe as a whole was generally under-invested in terms of tourism infrastructure with a combined capacity of about 6 000 rooms.

He said the bulk of this infrastructure was concentrated in the resort city of Victoria Falls, which is the country’s prime tourist destination. Outside the big cities like Bulawayo and Harare, he said, the rest of the facilities were distributed mainly in Kariba and the Eastern parts of the country.

“From an investment point of view, we have a wide range of facilities to invest in ranging from luxury to budget hotels,” said Mr Machigere.

He said apart from Victoria Falls, the country has other tourism hotshots such as Binga in Matabeleland North, Masvingo and Kariba that can be accessed by road or air.

Zimbabwe also has vast investment opportunities in designated tourism zones that are spread across the country that include transfrontier conservation areas.
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There are also special economic zones, which offer a variety of incentives to investors and the Victoria Falls Special Economic Zone is one such example covering parts of Binga and Hwange.

Mr Machigere said the country was keen to drive more tourism investments as it was competing with other destinations in the regional market such as Durban and Cape Town in South Africa.

He said there is growing interest in Zimbabwe as a tourist destination of choice as evidenced by increasing international airlines that have shown interest to service the country’s routes.-The Chronicle