The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
THE newly created synergies among players in the hospitality industry in Bulawayo has played a pivotal role in marketing the city and its surroundings as one of the country’s tourism destination of choice.
Silwane Tours and Safaris director Mr Sikhawuliso Sibanda said a series of familiarisation tours of the city and surrounding areas’ tourist attractions by various stakeholders in the hospitality and tourism industry this year had begun to pay dividends with a number of businesses reaping proceeds from the initiative.
The familiarisation tours were organised and co-ordinated by Silwane Tours and Safaris and Bulawayo City Council through its KoBulawayo Tourism Committee.
“This year Bulawayo hosted a number of high profile conferences and we are glad to say that following the familiarisation tours we undertook this year, which also involved accommodation providers, a number of hotels and lodges are no longer compelling their guests to their rooms and environs.
“The hotels and lodges are now actively engaging tour operators to offer tours to various city and surrounding area attractions especially to those guests that would have booked accommodation as groups. The synergy we have created will definitely put Bulawayo back on the map as one of the tourist destination of choice in the country,” said Mr Sibanda.
Bulawayo boasts of numerous tourist attraction sites, which are at the hands of the local authority while others are managed by the National Museum and Monuments of Zimbabwe as well as private players.
It is also close to a number of tourist attractions such as Matopo National Park, Khami Ruins, Chipangali Wildlife Orphanage and Research Centre as well as a number of natural attractions.
He however, said the Government should come up with various programmes, incentives and packages aimed at assisting Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism sector.
“We (tour operators) are still trying to get more from Government so that we get new vehicles. We (SMEs) are still buying second-hand vehicles yet if you take a look at the tourism sector in other countries like South Africa, a vehicle in tourism lasts for a number of years because it would have been bought while new and when it is now too old it’s pushed out. It’s not the case here in Zimbabwe because we don’t have much Government support. It’s only a few, especially big companies, that are managing but for us as small businesses we are at a disadvantage when it comes to competitiveness,” said Mr Sibanda.
He said despite the Government having put in place a waiver on vehicles imported for use by players in the tourism industry as well as suspending customs duty on specified buses for use by operators most SMEs tour operators are financially incapacitated to import new vehicles.
“We appreciate the waiver, which the Government gave us but the problem is that one might have a waiver but fail to purchase because the transaction has to be cash, there are no credits. Another issue is that the waiver is only meant for new vehicles and so we (SMEs) can’t afford brand new vehicles at this stage,” said Mr Sibanda.
In his 2019 National Budget Statement announcement recently Professor Mthuli Ncube said in order to assist tour operators capitalise their fleet Government had proposed to extend suspension of duty on 75 new buses of a carrying capacity of eight to 55 passengers, including the driver.
The facility would be availed for a period of 12 months beginning on 1 January 2019.
