The Sunday News
THE resort town of Victoria Falls has been hit hard by a low tourism season with operators recording numbers that are way below previous years amid revelations that January targets were not met.
In a bid to trigger the domestic market, some operators have introduced specials meant to entice local visitors and stay afloat during the first quarter of the year.
Stanley and Livingstone Private Game Reserve Safari Lodge general manager Mr Vincent Makamure told Sunday Business that business had taken a knock due to various reasons which include Ebola fears and depression of the global economy.
“Ebola fears are still very much alive and this has seen group travellers cancelling their journeys. This also happens to be a period when everyone’s coffers are empty, the domestic market is also depressed and most businesses are just opening hence there are very few conferences at the moment.
Another major factor is that the South African rand depreciated heavily against the dollar thus affecting disposable incomes for our SA market,” said Mr Makamure.
South Africa is Zimbabwe’s largest source market.
He said as a result of the prevailing challenges, Stanley and Livingstone is running domestic tourism specials from now up to the end of March with the possibility of extending the promotion to April.
He said Stanley and Livingstone, a five-star hotel regarded as one of the places offering the best safari experience in the resort town, has reduced its rates by 55 percent from $450 bed and breakfast for two people as part of its domestic tourism promotion.
“We believe that the domestic market is stable and there are certain external forces that do not affect this market and we are hoping to strike a responsive chord with our promotions for both the safari lodge and Ursula Camp,” said Mr Makamure.
Shearwater public relations manager Mr Clement Mukwasi said the Ebola fear was tourism’s worst enemy, which resulted in the majority of cancellations especially from the Asian market.
“Tourists from China, Japan as well as Korea had the most cancellations and these are some of the markets that usually boost tourism arrivals. Fears of Ebola in Africa are real and the effects of those reports are what we see now.
We usually have set targets each year but this January we failed to meet our target compared to last year and this shows that operators have been recording numbers lower than the usual in comparative periods,” said Mr Mukwasi.
