The Sunday News
Noble Ncube, Business Reporter
TOURIST arrivals in Zimbabwe increased by 10 percent during the period from January to September 2015 compared to the same period in 2014, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority has announced.
In a sector performance report, ZTA said the growth was underpinned by arrivals from traditional markets such as UK and USA in addition to the increase in arrivals from mainland Africa.
ZTA is still tallying the arrivals recorded during the busy last quarter to come up with the 2015 overall performance statistics.
It said during the first nine months of 2015, arrivals were at 1,4 million from 1,3 million in 2014.
Arrivals from Africa, America, Europe and Oceania rose marginally while Asia and the Middle East declined quite substantially.
According to the report, there were 1,2 million tourist arrivals from African countries up from 1,1 million in 2014, 107 000 arrivals from Europe 51 000 arrivals from America, 23 000 from Asia, 2 800 from the Middle East and 21 000 from Oceania in the period under review.
Tourists from Europe increased by two percent from 105 000, American tourists increased by a mere 0,2 percent, Oceania arrivals increased by four percent and Asia and the Middle East decreased by 32 percent and 43 percent respectively.
“Arrivals from mainland Africa increased by 13 percent during the period January to September 2015, following a positive trend from the first half of the year in which they also grew by nine percent. Although such a positive growth was registered, arrivals into mainland Africa continue to be dominated by indirect transits who accounted for 40 percent of the arrivals from this region.
“In the absence of indirect transits, total tourist arrivals from Africa would have been 773 283 in 2015, compared to 661 597 in 2014, a growth rate of 17 percent.
“It is important to note that most of the indirect transits for Zimbabwe arise from trade trips within the region and these mostly emanate from Malawi (with 82 percent arrivals being on transit), Tanzania (77 percent), Zambia (68 percent), DRC (59 percent) and Kenya (57 percent). Most of these transits will be going on shopping trips to South Africa and Tanzania,” said ZTA.
The report further read that South Africa remained the most significant market from mainland Africa and had a small fraction of the arrivals being in transit (10 percent). The increase in South African arrivals into Zimbabwe was quite notable as it was against the weakening of the Rand during the year. The South African market is also influenced by Zimbabweans who have become permanent residents in the neighbouring country.
Zimbabwe’s other major African markets in the region, Botswana and Mozambique declined by three percent and two percent respectively. This was a significant recovery from the 19 percent decline registered by both markets in the first half of the year.
Statistics for the period under review showed that Harare and Bulawayo International Airports were mostly dominated by British and Irish arrivals.
Although Zimbabwe’s tourism sector had experienced negative performance in the first quarter of the year, tourist arrivals showed a positive performance in the third quarter.
“It remains critical for Zimbabwe as a destination to increase its visibility in critical overseas markets because that’s where the country generates fresh injections in terms of tourism receipts. More investment in terms of financial resources are needed in order to implement the planned marketing programmes because competition has become stiff in the region as the competitors offer almost similar products to tourists,” said ZTA.
