Zimbabwe has set ambitious tourism targets for 2020. At the launch of the National Tourism Policy in Zimbabwe last week, Minister of Tourism Walter Mzembi, expressed his vision of a ‘$5bn (R53bn) tourism economy in Zimbabwe by 2020’.
Mzembi said he would set Zimbabwe’s tourism performance at 30% of South Africa’s tourism performance. He said: “Currently South Africa’s tourism economy is turning over $12bn (R128bn) from 10 million arrivals per annum. By 2020, we forecast South Africa’s tourism economy to be exceeding $16bn (R170bn) based on their current growth strategies.”
Mzembi urged for closer co-operation with South Africa for Zimbabwe to also benefit from the 9,9 million international tourists that visit SA. He said he wanted to investigate why more international tourists did not take an extension visit to Zimbabwe when they visit SA. He questioned whether this was caused by visa requirements, poor product offerings and pricing or brand perception issues, suggesting these issues needed to be addressed for Zimbabwe to tap into this opportunity.
China is also high on Mzembi’s agenda and he aims to attract at least 5% of the Chinese outbound travel market by 2020. He urged the Zimbabwe government to simplify visa requirements for Chinese visitors. He said currently there were 100 million Chinese outbound travellers spending $140 billion (R1,5 trillion) at an average spend rate of $1 500 (R15 979) per visit. “If we commence next year with a target of 0.5%, it will translate into 1 million visitors and $750m (R7,9bn) in receipts respectively.”
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