The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo and Njabulo Bhebe, Business Reporters
ZIMBABWE’S hotel occupancy level for 2019 dropped, with industry officials attributing the trend to macro-economic conditions faced by the country in the year under review.
Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) president Mr Clive Chinwanda said although officials were still compiling statistics of the number of occupied rental units at the country’s registered hotels and lodges, indications are that the figure is likely to have significantly dropped compared to the previous year.
“Occupancies in the current year are down compared to the previous year. This is across all major destinations. While we are still compiling national statistics, in the Harare market for example the figure is down 12 percent from the same period last year and in Victoria Falls it has been on a low as well,” said Mr Chinwanda.
He said the hospitality sector had been hard hit by a myriad of economic challenges prevailing in the country chief among them being power and fuel shortages and a wave of wanton price increases of commodities since the beginning of the year.
“Power supply has been a real issue with hotels in the main tourist destination, the Victoria Falls being forced to go for 18 hours without power. This negatively affects the experience of the tourist and puts future bookings in jeopardy. Running hotels on generators also pushes the cost of doing business. Price fluctuations, erratic supply of goods including fuel are also an issue the hospitality industry has had to contend with. The increase in prices of inputs is driving up the cost of hospitality services pushing them out of the reach of many,” said Mr Chinwanda.
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) listed hospitality concerns, African Sun and Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) recorded declines in occupancy levels in the half year period to June 2019, reflecting an industry-wide trend, weighed down by a fall in domestic demand.
According to financial statements released in September both hospitality concerns posted a 10 percentage points drop each in occupancy levels for the period under review compared to the previous year.
Occupancy levels at African Sun dropped to 45 percent from 55 percent in 2018. Occupancy for RTG dropped by similar 10 percentage points margin to 43 percent from the prior 53 percent.
Standard Hotel manageress Ms Jacqueline Mkandla said business this year has been low compared to the previous year stating that it was largely due to low disposable income within the country’s populace.
“There hasn’t been much business this year as we had to depend on corporates that made bookings for their people and these weren’t many as well. Over and above all we only recorded brisk business during the ZITF (Zimbabwe International Trade Fair) period. We are now more of being in survival mode than being profitable largely due to low disposable incomes by the majority of the people in the country including potential hospitality clients,” she said.
Ms Mkandla further reiterated that the hotel did not record much business during the festive season.
“There hasn’t been any meaningful business during the festive season and we have discounted our rooms by 50 percent. Normally most hotels in towns and cities do not record much business during this period save for those that are located in resort areas. Most people tend to travel to their rural homes during the festive season and a number of companies will be on annual shut downs,” she said.
Standard Hotel is one of the Bulawayo’s sought-after hospitality havens.
Last year hotel occupancy level grew to 61 percent compared to 59 percent during the same period last year with occupancy across 10 hotels in Victoria Falls rising from 53,6 percent to 58,7 percent year-on year.
Industry officials attributed the increase to Government’s stance on improving the country’s business climate.
Tourism has been identified as a key economic pillar in the current Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) reaching five million tourists and contributing 15 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the current eight percent, receiving five billion in receipts and employing 300 000 directly and indirectly.
