RYAN CHIGOCHE
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) is rolling out training programmes to capacitate small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in the sector as it moves to grow the tourism industry, Business Times can report.
ZTA spokesperson, Godfrey Koti (pictured), said this week the skills being imparted include service excellence.
Already, the service excellence training started in border towns targeting SMEs that come in contact with a tourist and will be done in all of the country’s provinces.
The tourism sector is set to rebound after it was severely hit by the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions put in place by the government to curb the spread of the virus.
Koti said it is all hands on deck to spur the recovery of the tourism sector particularly post the Covid-19 pandemic which devastated and decimated the sector.
“The idea of the training is to push on the importance of service excellence and to equip business on what they have to do when they are interacting with clients,” he told Business Times.
Koti said customer experience is critical to a product such as tourism and “our idea is to make sure that we enhance that experience in the hope that we get more sales within the sector”.
Tourism is one of the key pillars in the Vision 2030 which seeks to attain an upper middle income economy.
“Just like the big players the small scale players are also important because they add on to the fabric of tourism and for us to be able to be contributing this 8% to the country’s gross domestic product, that we have been contributing consistently, we need all players,” Koti said.
Daniel Mpande, the ZTA Area Manager for Masvingo Province also told Business Times that the training was key as the SMEs must also deliver excellent service which will lead to more business and profitability. He said all players in the sector should be able to give the same “excellent service” to the tourists.
“The tourist should not feel that so and so is better in terms of service delivery.
“The training will equip these small players with the knowledge and skill to deliver quality service delivery,” Mpande said.
He said the training is being done focusing on good ambassadorship for destination Zimbabwe that includes handling guests and handling guest complaints and also the selling skills.
To date, training has already been undertaken in Beitbridge, Masvingo, Chiredzi, Mutare, Nyanga, Victoria Falls, Gweru, Kwekwe, Bulawayo, Umfurudzi, Mutoko, Nyamapanda, Kariba and Chinhoyi.
The ZTA is responsible for capacitating, developing marketing skills and initiatives within the industry, promoting high standards in the tourism sector through the establishment of standards, training, and human resources development.
The division is also in charge of registering and grading designated tourist facilities as well as promoting the development of tourist facilities.
Before the onset of the pandemic tourism as a sector was one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in Zimbabwe.
A huge percentage of Zimbabwe SME tourism players are in businesses like restaurants, travel agents, lodges, safaris, and entertainment.
However, most of these SMEs in the tourism sector lack business knowledge in terms of expertise that is needed so that they can enhance their operations.
ZTA reported that the tourism sector generated US$359m from the US$1.24bn recorded in 2019.
