Victoria Falls tourism players bring cheer to locals

TOURISM operators and hoteliers in Victoria Falls have offered rare complimentary tickets to more than 100 local residents to explore and experience various activities and services in the industry in an effort to promote domestic tourism.

This is happening in the absence of international tourists and Victoria Falls residents comprising operators, executives and the ordinary citizen have come together to explore their own city.

The initiative was coordinated last week by “We are Victoria Falls”, a public-private sector driven campaign whose aim is to market Destination Zimbabwe. About 100 local members of the community, residents and players in the tourism industry were mobilised for the local tourism week and were taken through various activities and experiences usually enjoyed by foreign tourists.

Over the years, there were concerns that ordinary citizens especially in Victoria Falls were not benefitting from tourism resources around them as many have never toured the Rainforest, slept or had a meal in a hotel and even experienced any of the activities such as white-water rafting, bungee jumping, boat cruise, elephant rides or game drives because of exorbitant charges.

The Government and tour operators are on a drive to promote domestic tourism and inculcate a culture of holidaying among locals. The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, which also participated in the one week-long local experience, has been busy around the country with the help of operators marketing various destinations through the ‘ZimBho’ initiative.

Coordinator of the “We are Victoria Falls” initiative, Ms Shelly Cox, said December was usually one of the busiest months in terms of tourism. This year’s festive season will, however, be low compared to previous years because of the lockdown, which saw draw card activities such as the Victoria Falls Carnival being removed from the calendar while Mapopoma was scaled down into an indoor event. Over the years festive season occupancies hovered around 90 percent.

“This year following the downturn in the tourism as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the tourism community has been hard hit. Business, livelihoods and local communities have all been impacted. In an extraordinary effort to show solidarity with small businesses and rekindle some of the inspiration that this sector can bring, local residents came up together to play ‘tourist’ for a week of exploration and adventure,” said Ms Cox.

She said service providers opened their doors for local residents to explore hidden gems in the destination. The complimentary experience included canoeing safaris, game drives, cultural village visits, intimate guesthouse breakfast, star-gazing, horseback safaris and tour of Victoria Falls Rainforest.

Many of the selected represented various companies in the destination as they were taken through the services of the future supplier to the industry post Covid-19 lockdown period.

Others were peers, competitors or members of the community who have been tirelessly working for the city’s recovery from Covid-19.

“It has been an intense week but one that has really brought out the best of this community who had to step out and experience the activities in their backyard that are normally offered to tourists,” Ms Cox said.

“We all want to believe 2021 will be a better year and I feel this week has rekindled some of that hope and reaffirmed what a wonderful city we have here. We would like to see the community do something like this in future.”

One of the operators, Ms Michelle Keefe, who runs Africa Addict said: “I think it’s important to support our industry at the moment because it is the lifeblood of this city and we all need to just pull together.”

Tourism executive at Wild Horizons, Mrs Barbara Murasiranwa, who is also Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe (TBCZ) representative said the ‘local tourism week’ was an eye-opener.

Addressing local operators here recently, Mrs Murasiranwa implored the industry to come up with packages that are favourable to domestic clients, adding that TBCZ was also engaging the Government to waive some licences and rates charged on industry players. —-herald.cl.zw