MUTARE– Tourism and Hospitality sector has been hit by a marginal slump in hotel occupancy as a result of viability challenges linked to overall macro-economic performance, outgoing President of the Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe Innocent Manyera has said.
By Donald Nyarota
In his 2019 report, Manyera said when compared to the same period last year, not even a single hotels recorded occupancy levels above 50 percent.
He said the current environment threatened gains made by the industry in the previous year as cash shortages, perennial power outages as well as runaway inflation remained major impediments to growth.
“2019 has been bedeviled by a host of challenges which are threatening to reverse previous gains. Cash shortages, rising price, energy and power shortages which are key enablers of all market segments local, regional and international tourists were a major challenge in the first half of 2019 and continue unabated.
“The occupancies in the first half of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018 show a national average occupancy of below 35 percent in major regional tourism areas which is very low capacity.
“Only Harare, Victoria Falls and Mutare (most probably because of Cyclone Idai) recorded at least 40 percent and above occupancy but never reaches 50 percent,” said Manyera.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate Munesuishe Munodawafa urged tourism players to make use of government rebate on imports extended to the sector.
Munodawafa challenged the tourism and hospitality sector to come up with innovative strategies to promote domestic tourism as well as using green energy as an alternative.
“It is worrying to note that statistics of 2019 so far indicate that there is a slight decline in arrivals compared to the same period in 2018, this we gleaned from the numbers that we have gotten from industry players.
“Government is aware of the challenges that affect the hospitality industry and these include but are not limited to power outages, fuel shortages, foreign currency shortages and limited disposable income for local people to take holidays,” said Munodawafa.
“I am challenging you to come up with innovative solutions to address these challenges including embracing renewable energy, as well as looking at our pricing models to attract more domestic tourism.”
