Zimbabwe’s tourism industry has thrived on foreign visitors who would come to enjoy the unmatched Zimbabwean tourism offerings. Unfortunately COVID-19 happened, lockdowns have been implemented worldwide, and it’s less likely that we will get foreign arrivals any time soon. The tourism sector has taken a knock, and there’s only one way out; domestic tourism. This could be the beginning of a shift towards more local tourism than ever before. 

Locals are very keen to travel, very much willing, however they meet one challenge: the cost issue. Most of the feedback we’ve received is that it is too expensive to travel in Zimbabwe, especially in comparison with our neighbouring countries which are competitive destinations like South Africa. 

This is a very valid argument. Before we go deeper into it, we first want to highlight that there truly are some affordable destinations in Zimbabwe, the unfortunate thing is that they are not known as much as the expensive ones. Probably it’s because they are not well marketed and we will be doing our part throughout the year to assist them with visibility. 

Going back to the issue of cost, people have given examples of hotels in Victoria Falls pricing over USD$70 per person per night for bread and breakfast. A couple spending two nights, would have to part with USD$280 on accommodation alone, this is before we factor in other costs like meals, and activities.

At one point, a price list trended, and one local hotel was charging USD$11 for breakfast; a few slices of bread, an egg and a cup of tea. There was so much backlash against them, although it would not lead to any change in the prices. In fact, it’s probably the realization that their outrage wouldn’t change anything which made people turn the whole issue into humor, coming up with suggestions of what could be bought with that amount of money. It just pointed at some prices not making sense to the local market. 

The Zimbabwe National Parks charges around USD$5 for conservation fees for each individual entering into the parks, and another fee if you are using a vehicle, USD$5 for ordinary vehicles. This is already a $10 cost that’s being built up to the travel cost. If you will be visiting a park like Nyanga National Park, where it’s definite that you can’t exhaust all its main features in one day, then you would have to double the cost. 

Activities at resorts also come at a cost. I’ll again give an example, a local going to Mutarazi Falls, would have to part with USD$40 to do a skywalk or USD$60 to do the zipline which are offered by Far and Wide. Many locals have questioned if it is not possible to lower the prices to encourage more people to do such activities. Most local tourists just visit the site to see the features, and can only cheer those who have deeper pockets. 

We also realize that the cost issue is also a product of the whole value chain or value network which consists of many goods and service providers which leads to the creation of tourism products we can enjoy. Generally, lot of things in Zimbabwe are overpriced, which leads to the tourism product cost even being higher. For example, research concluded that Zimbabwe had one of the highest data costs in the region, so the cost of broadband to keep hotel guests connected goes up, and it builds up to operational costs which the operator has to cover.

Whatever it is, we need to make some changes and accommodate locals in local tourism, as it stands they are the sector’s only hope. For now we can forget about many people flying in to visit Zimbabwe, the pandemic has cancelled that. We have to work with what we have, and that’s the locals. What is the point of having facilities opened but with no occupants, instead of coming up with a rate that’s reasonable to the local market and fill them up with bookings?

We cannot ask operators to lower their prices, without asking government to assist at policy and regulatory level. Taxes, levies, license fees which government and regulatory authorities are a cost which operators bear, and end up passing on to consumers. If these costs are high, then a high cost is passed on to the local tourist, who may not afford a bigger travel budget. Government has to help the tourism sector by making considerations on license fees, taxes and levies.

On our end, we will do our best to help you find the best deals within the market. All you need to do is to think ahead, so that we can help you plan and budget whilst there is enough time to get discounts, and also to enable you to pay in installments over a longer period of time,which makes it more manageable for you. 

We must not be comfortable in a situation where people want to experience Zimbabwe, but only see it in pictures on social media or magazines because they can’t afford. We must also never be comfortable in a situation where Zimbabweans prefer to travel outside our borders and not local because the price makes it better to spend outside the country than local. Let’s get the pricing right, and we will be amazed at what local tourism can do in Zimbabwe. 

tinashe@travelzimbabwe.co.zw