Positioning the Zimbabwe tourism sector for growth : issues and challenges

The study benefited from countrywide face to face interviews with key stakeholders in the tourism sector, that were selected through a stratified sample of stakeholders-hotel managers, tour operation managers and public sector executives. The study showed that there is an increasing consensus on the importance of tourism as a strategic sector in the national economy. It further showed that the sector provides an essential contribution to the economic well-being of the country and to the economic objectives of government. It noted that success of the Zimbabwe"s tourism industry is based on its natural resources, people, history, culture, amenities and superstructure. However, it is noted that the sector is facing a number of growth-constraining challenges that includes lack of inter-governmental policy coordination as different government institutions promulgate policies and regulations without considerations of their impacts on other sectors hence impacting negatively on the tourism sector. Associated with this, is the issue of poor policy implementation and costly policy reversals. Other bottlenecks to tourism growth includes: lack of internal airline connectivity, road network that need urgent repair and rehabilitation; inadequate skills and experience mix in tourism facilities, weak domestic tourism promotion and limited Information Communication Technology usage, among others. To deal with these challenges, the study establishes that tourism is an export product consumed at source, hence key to growth is the need to ensure accessibility by improving both air and road connectivity. While tourists are often rich, they are very poor in terms of time. This makes it imperative to ensure the smooth passage of tourism at ports of entry, and en route to the various resorts. Key therefore, is the need to reform the visa regime and rehabilitation of the road network and reduce needless delays on police road blocks. Furthermore, the study noted that positioning the tourism sector on a sustainable growth path requires: a conducive and well coordinated institutional framework and policy environment, establishment of a tourism revolving fund to support investments in the sector, improvement in internal airline connections, reforming the visa system, human resources development, and improvement in the marketing coverage to both domestic and international tourists. (Author abstract, modified)