BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI
Tourism players say the move by the United Kingdom to remove Zimbabwe from its Covid-19 travel red list will boost the industry that has been battered by prolonged lockdowns.
The UK’s red list requires travellers to quarantine in an approved hotel at their cost for 10 full days and Zimbabwe was among 54 countries that were listed.
On Thursday the UK said the number of countries will be cut down to just seven on Monday and Zimbabwe is among countries that will come off the list.
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) spokesperson Godfrey Koti said the classification was damaging to the country’s tourism since the UK was among its biggest source markets.
“The announcement that destination Zimbabwe will be removed from the red list is incredibly exciting and the sector is fully prepared to help travellers get back to this beautiful tourism destination, “Koti said.
“To us as the tourism sector, the announcement brings hope for recovery of the sector.
“We are looking forward to an increased traffic flow into the destination.
“We’re expecting to see the resumption of flights into destination Zimbabwe.”
Employers Association for Tours and Safari Operators president Clement Mukwasi said the changes by the UK will create more opportunities for local tourism players.
“The UK has been a major contributor to the Zimbabwe tourism industry, so this is a huge decision that they have made,” Mukwasi said.
“We are hopeful that countries such as Australia and United States of America are also going to put us on the green zone.
“This is surely going to revive the tourism industry, revive livelihoods of people who are operating in the tourism industry and we are hopeful that by the end of the year, tourists will be thronging not only Victoria Falls but various tourism stations of Zimbabwe.”
According to a survey compiled by Zimbabwean hospitality group, Africa Albida Tourism titled Victoria Falls – Africa’s Living Soul: A Tourism Survey of the Victoria Falls Region in 2019, visitors from the UK in 2015 were at 5 524 and 12 765 by the end of 2018.
Koti said Zimbabwe’s removal from the UK red list showed that government measures to fight Covid-19 were working.
Vaccinated travellers from Zimbabwe, Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, South Africa and Turkey will be treated the same as returning fully-vaccinated UK residents as long as they have not visited a red-list country in the 10 days before arriving in England.