A plus for destination Zimbabwe
Another airline, Zambian Airways, began daily flights between Harare and Lusaka this week in another vote of confidence for the destination.
About 10 new airlines have been flying to Zimbabwe since 2017, taking advantage of the country’s open skies policy.
Airlines that have chosen Zimbabwe in their expansion programmes include Eswatini Air, Qatar Airways and Air Tanzania, among others.
Airlines that have been flying into the country have added new routes. Airlink introduced a service between Johannesburg and Victoria Falls while Ethiopian Airlines introduced a flight to Bulawayo via Victoria Falls from Addis Ababa and a second frequency on the Addis-Harare route.
The coming on board of airlines flying into Zimbabwe is a boon for the growth of tourism as the country seeks to become the hub of MICE (meetings, incentives conferences and exhibitions) tourism.
It is a testament of an existing favourable environment notwithstanding the challenges encountered in remitting ticket sales revenue.
The National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy which seeks to grow the tourism economy to US$5bn by 2025 has placed the promotion of MICE tourism as an integral component of the tourism recovery plan.
“The hosting of MICE activities such as Conferences, Events, Fairs and Festivals has the potential to bring people and businesses together thereby building trust and boosting confidence in the destination. Engagement will be made with the relevant organisations that had cancelled or postponed scheduled international conferences to have them reconvened in the future,” the document said.
The strategy says it recognises the paramount role of infrastructural development to guarantee connectivity in the tourism sector, these being air transport development, world-class road networks as well as provision of utilities such as electricity.
Destination marketing has placed accessibility as key.
A favourable environment is what any investor wants. This makes it critical for the government to ensure policy consistency reigns.
Remittances of ticket sales revenue has to be done in a timeous manner to allow airlines access to the funds to run their operations.
African countries have struggled to remit ticket sales revenue to a foreign currency squeeze. Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria has struggled to remit ticket sales revenue to Emirates, one of the world’s leading airlines.
While the foreign currency squeeze is buffeting a number of African countries, what is key is adherence to set thresholds in remitting blocked funds which gives the airlines the legroom to run their capital-intensive operations.
Airlines are saddled with losses and they cannot afford to have funds trapped in another market.
The “we are brothers or sisters” mantra has no place in business.
