The Sunday News
Nkosilathi Sibanda, Business Correspondent
PLAYERS in the tourism industry cannot afford to lag behind at a time when holiday makers the world over are using the digital space to search for the perfect destination.
Advertising messages on tailor made tourism packages are filling up every webpage, TV and social media sites as internet penetration cut deep. While big names in the industry have for long grasped and earned rewards for being visible on the cyber space, the nag is with some local hoteliers. Few home grown firms are rising up to the opportunities abound online.
Tourism like any business is reliant on demand. The more the visitors, be better the profits. A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-funded research on tourism and the internet give compelling insights on that more than half of the world’s population has access to smart phones, which is driving at least 50 percent of web traffic.
But local players are yet to appear in digital space that hosts a big number of potential clients. A random check on B&B lodges, restaurants, and leisure centres in areas outside big towns revealed a sad scenario. Out of a bounty of premises, only a few have websites, let alone an email account and a Facebook presence.
In and around Bulawayo, advertising is through word of mouth. Some places rely on yesteryear glory. The mention of a Twitter handle is more like Greek talk to hotel, eatery and lodge receptionists, who in their practice, the internet is a taboo. hashtags, and the popular messaging sites like WhatsApp are not be taken for granted if numbers matter in marketing local destinations. Even a hideout nestled at the thicket of a game park needs online presence. The only obvious reason to that is, to be visible and lure as many viewers who in turn become visitors.
This confirms why only 34 percent of foreign visitors book online, according to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority. But without digital marketing, how are these small time holiday makers planning to catch the interest of an overseas traveller?
The ZTA has the panacea. ZTA views e-marketing as the leading tool with which local hoteliers can use to bring in as many tourists. The ultimate gain is an increase in profits and a plus to the country’s foreign currency earnings.
The country tourism controlling arm opines that a digital marketing platform is a must for every player in the industry. It is by this view that ZTA has laid an ambitious drive to come up with a massive, interactive and beneficial e-marketing forum that permits visitors to book holidays online at any hotel countrywide.
The catch is one that any tourism establishment cannot afford to miss. At a recent consultative meeting held in Bulawayo stakeholders in the tourism sector had a lengthy conversation on digital marketing. Top on the agenda was how to fully utilise benefits from e-marketing and new media. It was thread bare for all that the tourism industry needs to surf in the digital web.
Mr Karikoga Kaseke the ZTA chief executive underscored the internet has created a new economy. He said the industry was now compelled to go digital as the local players are lagging on internet presence.
“Approximately 63 percent regional travellers make their booking online so you find that compared to our 34 percent we still have a lot of work to do.
E-marketing is the way to go and we need to do what other destinations are doing to lure tourists from all over the world,” he said at a recently held meeting of the Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe. We know the importance of digital marketing and as the authority responsible for marketing the tourism industry, we must come up with a strategy that will be used by industry players,” he said.
The ZTA must lead the pack. Laggards in the campaign for digital presence would find it hard to cope when online initiatives rake in the rewards.
Digital Tourism Think Tank, a global policy house gives some advice to both the small time lodge owner and the five star hoteliers.
“In starting up at marketing a destination on the internet, the key is on how you put out your story. Storytelling is the lifeblood of destination marketing. Destinations need to spend time mastering this before they overextend themselves as this is foundational to digital marketing,” said the think tank.
There is a lot that has to be done to get local hospitality players to invest in e-marketing and start using new media to reach holiday makers. If there is a quest to be at the fore of turning around the fortunes of a once vibrant economic cluster, it is agreeable with the majority of companies in the sector that it is about time marketers up a gear up into cyber space.
The contribution of the Zimbabwean tourism sector to the economy needs no emphasis and so is the need to harness information communication technologies.
“It is clear that half the world’s population can make an online booking for a holiday in any part of the globe. The onus is now on us to tap into that low hanging market,” said Mr Kaseke said in the part presentation to industry stakeholders.
