THE Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe (TBCZ) this week pressed the panic baton, warning of damaging upheavals unless government shifted policy and relaxed tough conditions imposed on hotels.
The multibillion-dollar industry, which makes up about 4,1%
of Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product and generates about US$3 billion annually,
has been pushed to the brink by Covid-19 induced hard lockdowns since March
2020.
Sector firms’ predicament was last year compounded by the
emergence of the Omicron variant, which forced government to apply tougher
measures to fight the contagion, including shutting down public spaces in
hotels – the locomotives that drive leisure and travel worldwide.
Government scaled up restrictions this month, when it
directed restaurants attached to hotels, backpackers, lodges and guest houses
to serve food and drinks only in rooms.
Acting President Constantino Chiwenga, who is the Minister
of Health and Child Care, announced the directives under Public Health
(Covid-19 Prevention, Containment and Treatment) Regulations of 2020 through a
Statutory Instrument (SI).
The directives threw the sector into a quandary because it
had already been unsettled by SI 267 of 2021, which enforced stricter
conditions for inbound tourists, including
ten-day quarantine on arrival before mixing with locals.
This week, TBCZ president Wengayi Nhau warned of more
corporate graveyards in the sector as he revealed that the fewer international
arrivals still trooping into the region were skirting Zimbabwe to luxuriate in
competing destinations that have less stringent regulations.
“This instruction is (the SI) unimaginable, unworkable and
unthinkable,” Nhau told Standard Business.
The TBCZ brings together, several organisations that
represent the industry’s interests.
These include the Association of Zimbabwe Travel Agents,
the Board of Airline Representatives, the Zimbabwe Vehicle Rental Association,
the Zimbabwe-Tour Operators Association, the Safari Operators Association of
Zimbabwe, the Catering Employers Association of Zimbabwe and the Hospitality
Association of Zimbabwe.
“Our industry is now in distress,” Nhau added.
“We are now faced with an industry that is on the verge of
collapse if nothing is done now to assure the markets that we are doing
something. The latest instruction was just an addition to what already was
there which required mandatory ten days quarantine for visitors and another PCR
test on arrival.
“Although they (government) have not been implementing
this, the international community stand guided by the official position. The
official position is that quarantine is required. This has led to a lot of
tourists cancelling or deferring trips into Zimbabwe,” Nhau told
Standardbusiness.
He said when government announced new rules in November, to
manage the Omicron threat, the industry was confident that this would be
followed by a quick review this January.
He said with infection and mortality rates falling,
authorities must relax restrictions to save the industry and reactivate
economies in a string of major resorts, which are now literally “ghost towns”.
“It is the first time that infection numbers are going down
but they (government) are increasing restrictions, which has left us with many
questions. We are now in a situation whereby if nothing is done, we are facing
an industry that is going to close. People are in distress and workers are now
anxious,” Nhau said.
“Victoria Falls is (now) a ghost town. (The resort town of)
Kariba is just as good as buried. Conference business is under threat. We have
a big conference coming up and nobody would want to have a situation where they
are restricted to their rooms at the hotels. It defeats the whole purpose of
being on holiday. People would rather not to come to Zimbabwe. Operators have
lost bookings to neighbouring countries like Zambia and Botswana who have come
out with more clarity in terms of protocol and regulations. Bookings and
decisions on which destinations to go are made during the first quarter. We are
already one month into the first quarter without clarity. We have casualties in
terms of job losses and business closures. In the worst-case scenario,
liquidations are going to happen soon,” he said.
The Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe said last year
that the tourism industry required at least US$100 million in fresh grants to
stay afloat.
SOAZ chairman, Emmanuel Fundira said under the
circumstances, extending loans to the sector would worsen an already bad
situation.
It was the latest of a series of pleas by sector players
for any form of intervention to avert a catastrophe after hotel occupancy
levels plummeted from a near 50% in 2019 to about 13% currently. Standard
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