This coming year is expected to be Zimbabwe’s tourism bustling year as the country plans to unveil several unique attractions. Tourism is expected to grow due to the ban of police roadblocks on most of the roads which were unattractive to self-driving visitors in the past.
According to the chief executive officer of Rainbow Tourism Group, Mr. Tendai Madziwanyika, Zimbabwe is expected to flourish in tourism by 2019. All the major tourist destinations in the country are accessible without the interruption of police roadblocks. These changes were affected after there were several inquiries made by foreigners into the issue.
Mr. Madziwanyika acknowledged that roadblocks were occasioned with unfriendly police activities in the past which led to a decrease of visiting foreigners. Tourists were not able to get the best from the self- driven services due to the interruptions made by police.
In self- drive shows, a visitor hires a car once he/she arrives at the airport. The self-drive go for a period of 14 to 21 days. Mr. Madziwanyika hoped that the self-drives in Zimbabwe would continue to grow as they have enormous returns for the tourism industry. He also revealed that they had received inquiries from self- drive services to major attractions in the country from as far as Hungary, among others. He added that it was of importance for Zimbabwe to manage its image and establish investor-friendly policies to promote the growth of the tourism industry.
James Haigh and Martin Mashingaidze, the CEO of Southern Africa Touring Services (Sats) shared similar views on the importance of maintaining a right image. Mr. Mashingaidze added that it is essential that the new government understand how the tourism market works. As such, there must be a policy shift to provide a better environment for more tourism investments.
According to Patrick Manyika, managing director of Jibha Africa Safaris, the country’s participation in the premier tourism exposition profoundly boosted its chances to recover the tourism sector in the shortest period possible. Mr. Manyika also said that it was important for Zimbabwe to be at par with neighboring countries regarding the pricing structure. He also noted that the removal of police roadblocks had opened up Zimbabwe to free movement across the various tourist destinations in the country.
