The Sunday News
Roberta Katunga, Senior Business Reporter
TOURISM and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi has urged tourism operators to help police acquire Point of Sale (POS) machines that can be used at roadblocks on the country’s highways.
This, he said, would then result in the reduction of the number of police officers on the road which have become a major concern to tourists arriving in the country.
Minister Mzembi said as the country was adopting the use of plastic money and going POS, online solutions were the answer to these problems of roadblocks.
“As operators help the police acquire POS machines and surrender them to the bosses, I can assure you within two weeks there will be a 50 percent reduction of those roadblocks. I will take up the issue in my report that will be presented to Cabinet,” he said.
Minister Mzembi said the country does not need a lot of police roadblocks but that the rebranding efforts of the tourism sector should extend itself to the security clusters.
“The correct term should be security check point because if we say roadblocks, what are we blocking, are we blocking visitors from coming into Zimbabwe?” said Minister Mzembi, adding that the concept of tourism policing should be adopted countrywide.
He said a number of policy pronouncements had unintended consequences on the tourism sector and his ministry had engaged the relevant authorities including President Mugabe on how tourism is affected and how it could be supported.
Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe president Mr George Manyumwa reportedly said HAZ was anticipating a huge drop in national hotel occupancy from 42 percent to 35 percent in the first half of this year .
“Our sector has of late been encountering several factors that are pulling against our efforts to promote tourism. Police roadblocks are one of the biggest challenges. When I was travelling from Harare to Mutare, we encountered 21 roadblocks where we were stopped. I can imagine tourists when they are travelling to the eastern highlands and they are to pass through all these roadblocks where they will be stopped and I don’t think it’s good for our tourism industry,” said Mr Manyumwa.
Meanwhile, Minister Mzembi revealed that the sector had to close Beitbridge Rainbow Hotel due to issues of quality.
He revealed that Beitbridge Rainbow Hotel was closed down as it had about 92 defects and they could not sustain the repairs and maintenance bills that averaged $15 000 a month, contrary to initial reports of low occupancy.
“The hotel was leaking and could not be fixed overnight, that is why RTG chose to close it. We will be investigating why such a poor quality asset was released into our market especially at a port of entry like Beitbridge,” said Minister Mzembi.
He urged the ZTA board to take a direct interest, as tourism supervisors, in Beitbridge saying the town was a gateway into Zimbabwe and as such should reflect the country positively.
@robertakatunga
