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Zimbabwe: 10 Chartered Flights Into Country Cancelled
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Financial Gazette (Harare)
8 May 2008
Posted to the web 9 May 2008
Shame Makoshori
Harare
TEN chartered flights that were expected to fly tourists into Victoria Falls in the past three weeks were cancelled after foreign operators responded to travel warnings issued by mostly western and European governments in the wake of rising political tensions in the country.
Tourism industry sources told The Financial Gazette from Victoria Falls this week that the political stand-off that has unfolded in the post election period between ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had cost the industry millions of United States dollars.
Initial indications had been that the political crisis in Zimbabwe had resulted in the cancellation of 78 percent of bookings, but The Financial Gazette was told the highlight of the crisis was the cancellation of the chartered flights, which usually bring high spending western travellers.
Unofficial estimates put the number of tourists who put off plans to travel to Zimbabwe as a result of the travel warnings, at 200.
"Arrivals had been picking up since the beginning of the year," a source in the prime tourism destination of Victoria Falls said.
"But the bad publicity in the western media has affected the flow of tourists in the past three weeks.
"The United Kingdom (UK) and the US (United States) have issued travel warnings. As a result, we witnessed not less than 10 chartered flights (being cancelled) and many more tourists have also decided not to come," the source said.
Two weeks ago, the UK's Foreign Office cautioned its citizens against traveling to Zimbabwe unless for pressing commitments "due to the continuing tension surrounding the election and the deployment of uniformed forces and war veterans across the country.
"The current situation is unpredictable, volatile and could deteriorate quickly, without warning," the office said.
International pressure group, Human Rights Watch, told of the escalating violence meted out against MDC supporters by ZANU-PF, which for the first time since independence lost its parliamentary majority.
The human rights watchdog said ZANU-PF had set up torture camps to "systematically target, beat up and torture people suspected of voting for the MDC".
No comment could be obtained from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), but chief executive officer, Karikoga Kaseke confirmed the cancellations in a recent interview, saying the developments were of "real concern".
"It must be noted that the perception management programme was initiated as a deliberate move to reverse the adverse effects of the same negative publicity, but the negative impact caused by the current onslaught (in the western media) is of real concern to us," he said.
ZTA statistics indicate that although tourists from the west had remained subdued, inflows had increased by about 20 percent to 2,7 million in 2007 from 2,2 million in 2006.
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This number is among the highest in the region and was expected to increase by not less than 30 percent in 2008.
But with the violence continuing, the figures could decline.
The cancellations come at a time when the hospitality industry is preparing to reap the benefits accruing from the 2010 FIFA World Cup to be hosted in South Africa in 2010.
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