Financial Gazette (Harare)
Sama Makoshori
1 November 2008
interview
ZIMBABWE Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive officer, Karikoga Kaseke (KK), had a hectic schedule last week because of the Sanganai/Hlanganani Travel Expo held in Bulawayo, where more than 200 international buyers were in attendance. In this Question & Answer with The Financial Gazette's Senior Business Reporter Shame Makoshori (SM), Kaseke was optimistic arrivals would even be better next year but warned the damage inflicted by the travel warnings issued in foreign markets would be difficult to repair.
SM: Do you see foreign currency revenues improving next year as a result of the Expo?
KK: Yes. We have revised our revenue targets for 2009 upwards. We are now expecting between US$130 million and US$140 million in additional receipts as a result of the exposition, which attracted a wider representation of international buyers. Almost all the regions were represented.
We had predicted US$400 million in tourism receipts during 2009 before Sanganai/Hlanganani but after the expo, with the interest it generated from international buyers, ZTA is now projecting US$530 million in revenue.
SM: Is this despite the bad publicity the country has been subjected to and a poor first half when arrivals declined by 60 percent?
KK: Given what we have seen from August onwards, there is great potential to recover the lost markets. April was depressed, but from July we saw a significant improvement. August was good.
There is certainly a bigger difference when compared to last year. But overall, we have revised our figures downwards in terms of annual arrivals following the depression experienced in March and April. I think we will now register between five and seven percent increase in arrivals this year, down from the 30 percent we had forecast.
SM: Are you still focusing on the low-spending Chinese market?
KK: We are talking here of a market that has 1, 3 billion people. It is a diversified market.
We have segmented this market into three categories: the high spending market that can spend US$20 000 per person per visit; the middle-income market that can spend between US$2 000 and US$3 000 per person per visit and the low spending market that spends about US$1 700 per person per visit.
In 2007 the average spending pattern per Chinese tourist per visit was US$7 000. So this market is arguably the highest spending market in Zimbabwe. We want to be more and more visible as we compete with others there.
SM: You have been working hard to correct the image of this country. But arrivals are declining. How does it feel to put all that effort only for others to destroy?
KK: I do not know what you mean by others?
SM: I mean the actions of the politicians, ZANU-PF and the MDC.
KK: As ZTA we have remained focused. We have not stopped working, waiting for the political settlement.
Others are seated, marking time and waiting for the political settlement. Even the private sector is going backwards.
That is not the way to go. In the tourism sector we have to remain active.
But we were disturbed by the behaviour of our colleagues like African Sun.
SM: What about African Sun?
KK: As the tourism sector we must march together. We must use tourism as a communication tool to communicate the Zimbabwean story. We want trade and we want investments.
But for investors to come they have to know Zimbabwe first. Who has traded in a country that he or she does not know?
African Sun has turned itself into a political party.
They denied our buyers from the UK and other countries food, water and accommodation during the Sanganai/Hlanganani expo in Bulawayo, as a way to prove to the buyers that there is no food in Zimbabwe.
SM: Even after you had paid?
KK: Yes, they were fully paid.
A delegation from the UK had to fly back to South Africa.
Then we heard some buyers were denied bathing facilities at Hwange Safari Lodge, then there was havoc in Masvingo, and then Victoria Falls (where African Sun operates hotels).
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