BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) says no businesses in the tourism sector have been forced to shut down in Victoria Falls since national lockdowns to control the spread of Covid-19 came into force last year.
Zimbabwe’s tourism industry has been hit hard by the global curbs in travel due to the pandemic and Victoria Falls as the prime destination is home to many companies that were badly affected by the dip in tourist arrivals.
Godfrey Koti, ZTA spokesperson, said businesses in the resort city had stayed afloat during the pandemic.
“We are lucky at the moment because we haven’t seen any operator folding in Victoria Falls,” Koti told VicFallsLive.
“In other tourist places, for example, restaurants have shut down
“In Victoria Falls where they have remained open, the challenges that we have been hearing from them, especially the smaller players are that they want the registration fees and parks fees to be reduced.
“They also want some revenue payment plans to be put forward and looked at so that they can save jobs because that’s one thing that has been lost in a quite remarkable manner within the sector.”
Koti said the information on the number of job losses in the industry was not yet available, but he believes about 80 percent of the employees lost their jobs during the lockdowns in Victoria Falls.
“I don’t have the percentage for that region, but they are the leading city,” he said.
“Tourism employs plus or minus 120 000 people in the country, so we are not sure where we are exactly right now, but we are hoping that we haven’t gone above 20 percent job losses.”
According to findings of a recent study by We Are Victoria Falls, a local hospitality industry initiative, the Covid-19 lockdowns have affected 94 percent of the people employed in the sector.
It says 49 percent of workers in the tourism sector were forced to work reduced hours and to take pay cuts because of the lockdown that was imposed in March last year.
At least 18 percent of the workforce was forced to go on unpaid leave.
Koti said some jobs were saved by the ZTA domestic tourism campaign dubbed ZimBho, Vakatsha that was meant to encourage Zimbabweans to rediscover the country’s tourist attractions.
“Most of these jobs that remained were mainly because of the domestic drive that we had,” he added.
“So that sort of helped most players to stay afloat because there was a slow business that came their way.”
To promote Victoria Falls as a safe destination, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government made vaccines available to all eligible residents and an estimated 90 percent of the targeted 25 000 people have been vaccinated.