The Sunday News
Roberta Katunga in Victoria Falls
AFRICA should stop relying on overseas markets for growth and focus on consolidating and promoting intra-regional tourism which can help boost economies of member countries, an official said.
Speaking at a Zimbabwe Council of Tourism convention in Victoria Falls on Thursday, Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (Retosa) acting executive director Mr Simba Mandinyenya said the region’s biggest challenge was defining growth on how much it is growing in the traditional overseas markets.
“Africa’s tourism market share has been stuck on five percent for a while now, it is time for a paradigm shift. The so called traditional markets should be secondary markets and the intra regional markets must be the traditional markets as research shows that intra-regional tourism is the key to success,” said Mr Mandinyenya.
He said research showed that Africa will experience the highest population growth globally while the region has the highest economic growth rate averaging seven percent per year in countries like Angola.
Mr Mandinyenya said it was important for operators to change their mindset and focus on branding Africa and marketing sub regions as one destination.
“Southern Africa requires at least three hubs and currently Johannesburg is number one while Victoria Falls incorporating Livingstone and the airport area has become a second hub. In the near future this Victoria Falls market will be carrying more travellers than Johannesburg. There is, however, room for a third hub in the region,” he said.
However, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke said it was a major worry that arrivals from overseas markets were declining as they contribute more in terms of receipts. He said overseas tourists spend more than those from the region and those in transit.
“A single person per day from overseas on average spends about $1 600 while an African traveller spends about $150 per day thus the overseas market contributes more in terms of revenue,” said Mr Kaseke adding that it was imperative for the tourism sector to find ways of growing the overseas market.
Mr Kaseke said Brand Zimbabwe was not doing well in its traditional source markets.
Meanwhile, despite a directive from President Mugabe in 2014 to launch a Know Your Zimbabwe campaign, Mr Kaseke revealed that the promotion was still yet to be launched. Mr Kaseke blamed lack of funding for the delay.
“Due to lack of resources we have not yet been able to launch the campaign but we will be doing so during the first quarter of this year probably in March as this was a directive from the President. We cannot sit back and wait for funding,” he said.
The ZCT tourism convention was held under the theme “Growing emerging economies through tourism development.”
The keynote address was made by AU Commissioner for Transport and Infrastructure Dr Elham Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim who spoke on the AU agenda 2063 for tourism.
She said Zimbabwe could move forward in implementing tourism strategies of AU 2063 and said under-exploitation of tourism remains a major concern in the region.
Dr Ahmed Ibrahim said tourism has deep and wide impact on the social well being of Africans and thus Brand Africa should speed up growth.
ZCT president Mr Francis Ngwenya said the convention was a way of moving beyond focusing on internal matters but the bigger picture of tourism growth and development.
“The economy and that of our neighbours can be substantially and significantly transformed through the planned and sustained growth of tourism. When a country is politically and socially stable, it is likely to have good levels of tourism and subsequently the economy as well,” he said.
