THE Victoria Falls tourism industry is upbeat of strong performance in 2020 despite the depressed figures during the 2019 festive season which saw average room occupancy declining by around 30 percent compared to the same period in 2018.
Tourism players in the country’s tourism capital, Victoria Falls are bullish of positive figures in 2020 to be spurred by aggressive marketing and renewed confidence in the destination.
The destination which set a target of 68 percent room occupancy for the 2019 festive season, did manage to achieve an average of 50 percent compared to 86 percent in 2018.
Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) Vice President, Farai Chimba said the outlook remains positive for the destination despite the depressed figures during the festive season.
“We did see a decline of double digits to about 50 percent and this is the period covering the period 24 December 2019 to the 1 January 2019. We are however bullish of strong recovery in as far as the destination is concerned for the next twelve months,’ he highlighted.
According to the HAZ, a combination of factors that include the elections in South Africa early last year and Brexit affected tourist traffic into the destination from the two key source markets.
However, there was substantial growth in arrivals from the American and Asian market.
Zimbabwe continues to make positive strides towards the realisation of a $7 billion earnings target by 2030, with revenue from the sector surpassing the $1 billion mark in 2018 while arrivals have remained on an upward trend reaching 2.5 million in 2018.
This comes at a time when Zimbabwe continues to be a safe and destination of choice by many celebrities as witnessed by the visits of the UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin, American celebrity couple Trai Byers and Grace Gealey-Byers among others.
