The Sunday News
Simba Jemwa, Sunday Business Correspondent
A Bulawayo-based photographing and environmental tourism operator has transformed his business by targeting domestic tourists as the burden of Covid-19 continues to take its toll on the sector.
Mbira Tours owner Mr Engelbert Karombo said the company was prepared for Covid-19-inspired business practices or the “new normal” as it is now popularly called, and had identified domestic tourism as a starting point.
Before Covid-19, packages by Mbira Tours were booked for much of the European and North American holidaying season.
Now Mbira Tours has had to be innovative to stay afloat in these tough times.
When Covid-19 struck Mr Karombo, like many others in the sector, was left with the vast majority of his usual market cut off by border closures and travel restrictions.
“We were scratching our heads over lockdowns, travel restrictions.
And obviously, the business was looking forward to scores of inbound tourists from Europe and the United States of America and then all of a sudden, we were at zero: no one was going anywhere and we realised that no one was coming to our shores any time soon. It was quite a jolt for us,” Mr. Karombo said.
At the time, only five percent of the business was domestic with locals not too keen on visiting tourist destinations.
But now they have been forced to remodel themselves to stay afloat and in business. Mbira Tours’ management decided to structure domestic tour packages.
The company elected to change its focus in the interim from standard tours and introduced tailor-made tours for the local clientele.
“We quickly realised that if we sit back and moan about how much we had lost as a result of travel restrictions, we would soon be out of business.
We also realised that we now needed to be innovative and come up with clever ways to attract domestic tourists,” he said.
Mbira Tours services and products now include pre-arranged tours, custom packages according to client’s specifications, travel consultation, making reservations for lodging among other related services.
The company’s new focus is aimed at using its experience to differentiate itself from other players in the tourism industry by expanding its services portfolio to also include cultural exchange programmes, environmental promotions and city tours to make clients appreciate the manner in which Zimbabweans live and associate.
“We have become a lot more diverse, with more to our service and product portfolio than ever before,” said Mr Karombo.
The Mbira Tours owner also revealed plans to create a heritage train tour from Bulawayo to various local tourism destinations with luxury coach trips along the way that are designed for domestic visitors.
“At Mbira Tours, we want to dispel the myth that domestic tourists aren’t necessarily high value tourists because we believe that to be quite the opposite.”
The Bulawayo-based tour operator has plans to soon launch a tour of local heritage sites within the heritage corridor launched by President Mnangagwa in June this year. – @RealSimbaJemwa.
