ZIMBABWE AND TOURISM TODAY An interview with the Minister of Tourism and Hospitality

Posted on 11/18/2015

In an exclusive for Travel Industry Today, Cindy-Lou Dale spoke at length with Walter Mzembi, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry.  In this fascinating interview they discuss everything that impacts tourism - from perceptions, politics and climate, to culture, infrastructure and Cecil the Lion – and lots more besides.

Q: Since you took office in February 2009 what key objectives have you achieved in your term?

The first objective was to affirm the significance of tourism in our national economy – creating a standalone Ministry for the sector. We joined three other economic pillars: agriculture, manufacturing and mining. Going into 2016 tourism has taken the lead in terms of sectoral growth. In the next quarter it is set to grow by 5.1 percent. Secondly, we have been able to redefine it beyond being just a leisure sector for the purposes of aligning it to the broader vision of tourism. It is now a tool of peace and development but more importantly for sustainable development and poverty alleviation. Since inheriting the tourism sector in 2009 we have in 2015 crossed the $1-billion mark in terms of receipts which historically was receipting around $294-million.

Q: What are the challenges you face in challenging poaching?

Cecil, the lion is a story of what has gone wrong with conservation management, not just in Zimbabwe, but in Africa in general. Cecil symbolized what can happen if you don’t harness all the factors that are at play in sustainable conservation management. Cecil symbolised what can also happen if markets are not integrated as part of the solution to sustainable conservation management. It’s become the most topical subject in African tourism as it is 80 percent of the product.

Q: What are you doing as a government to tackle this?

There are hard and soft solutions to the problem. The hardball solution is a para-military response because of the high level and sophistication of the poachers. Historically poachers have used gunships, now they are more discerning and utilise silent methods that include the use of illicit substances like Cyanide in wells where animals come to drink. The whole poaching stage has become so advanced; it requires more than a para-military response.

We have to look at what the poachers incentive is – starting with communities. We in Africa have always had a peaceful coexistence with its flora and fauna but in the last two decades we have seen a drastic shift away from peaceful cohabitation to where even our communities have been drafted into the trade and we have to examine the issue - not just poaching but look whether we still have sustainable livelihoods for communities adjacent to biodiversity areas and national parks. If those livelihoods have been taken away we need to draft those people into the community police force – this is an integral solution to the problem.

This brings to question: have the national parks become an imposition to natural habitats that once allowed for peaceful cohabitation and whether their imposed borders have caused the problem in terms of creating exclusionary zones that have consigned communities to other modes of existence, which do not necessarily depend on the ecosystem. That whole analysis would not require gunships or bullets – it’s a philosophical solution which questions the governance of biodiversity areas and seeing how best we can draw our communities back into the ecological politics of wildlife areas.

The business cutting edge of biodiversity is expressed through tourism. We are proffering a number of solutions which balance our interests on the principle that animals must work for their own existence. If they are over populated in certain areas and we cull them, then the income derived from this culling or wildlife trophy hunting must look after the remaining population. The problems arise when communities become spectators to elite resource capture - when they watch tourists come in to trophy hunt and they are not part of the benefit stream. This creates a state of despair in local communities who live on less than a dollar a day which makes them vulnerable to the illicit trade. So we need to include them, redraft them back into the ecosystem to make them part of the solution.

Q: Other than your nature and wildlife, what does Zimbabwe have to offer in terms of culture and how do you plan to develop this further?

Culture has been a victim of imperialism as much as the politics and those communities that have managed to retain their integrity, in terms of their cultural product, remain much more attractive to international tourism than the outlying grey areas. In areas near wildlife parks we seek to further enhance cultural tourism and expand our community-based enterprises (which are aligned with biodiversity and can be found in already established areas attractive to international tourism) by introducing house-stays in its original, unadulterated form.

Q: Agriculture, mining and tourism are the pillars upon which the Zimbabwean economy is built. What resources have you allocated to job creation in the tourism sector?

There has been very little investment in the tourism sector at fiscal level. This has prompted me to not just lead an advocacy for Zimbabwe but for the entire African continent. Broadly speaking, Africa’s national governments do not invest in tourism, they expect it to work magically for them and as a result we find ourselves as a minimalist participant in global tourism: five percent market share on arrival, a mere $56-million out of a $1.1-billion pool. Africa has only a three percent market share on international tourism and receipts amounting to $36-billion out of $1.5-trillion.

We have begun research into the factors that are contributing to this stagnant performance over the last decade and it’s pointing principally to one area – marketing and promotion. If you don’t expose your product, nobody will know about it.

Budgetary support for tourism ranges from $200,000 in some African countries to $100-million in countries like South Africa. When you look at a pie-chart to see who has the greater market share of African tourism you will find South Africa has taken almost 24 percent – because they have invested in it. Those that have not invested in tourism have only a decimal point of the market share.

We are advocating for minimalist fiscal budgetary support for marketing and promotion and investment in tourism similar to what the African Union prescribed for Agriculture as a pillar in 2003 through the Maputo Declaration where they encouraged African governments to dedicate at least 10 percent of their fiscal budget towards the support of agriculture. We are saying that tourism should receive a minimum of one percent. Should this come to be, as we have advocated for it with the African Union, I’m certain that by 2018/2020 it would double the performance of the African tourism economy. We are simply not investing in tourism in Africa. We are expecting magical wonders out of it with little fiscal investment. So, budgetary support is critical.

Q: Political events always affect tourism. There was bad perception about Rwanda and its genocide, similarly Zimbabwe and its land reforms. Do you see tourism playing a central role in accelerating reform?

Tourism is a reform tool. To the extent that it should be the precursor to any country’s national and foreign policy. It’s also a diplomacy tool. Whilst the government may be in disagreement with the rest of the international community, the international bridge that we call tourism must always remain in tack to allow freedom of movement of people. This has worked for Zimbabwe to a very large extent as in 2013 when we hosted the United Nations World Tourism Organisation General Assembly, which sign-posted the country’s readiness to engage the world and signalled that Zimbabwe is good for business.

Tourism is a force for good, it’s a tool for diplomacy and even in a state of fall-out, paradoxically, nations that disagree with you the most, become your chief source markets. In the case of Zimbabwe, it has been the United States, the UK and Europe that have provided the highest number of tourist arrivals- notwithstanding the political disagreements. Tourism must always make louder noises than those made politically and keep people connected.

Q: Given the lengthy visa application forms Chinese tourists need to complete to gain access to the UK, does Zimbabwe have a streamlined visa process in place to ensure tourists can visit with minimal inconvenience?

Globally, the thrust is on creating open destinations.  A closed destination will not enjoy the the wealth of the world characterised by travel. The leadership of the UK in this instance has been very instructive. Never before did we imagine the President of China being hosted in Buckingham Palace or at the White House – there is a new season of diplomacy in China led by the State President himself which is symbolised by him leading in State Visits, fulfilling a prophetic statement by Isiah Chapter 60 vs 11 “Keep thy gates open, do not close them during the day nor during the night, so that you may enjoy the wealth of the Gentiles with their Kings in triumphal procession”.

Today’s Gentiles are tourists, and the State Visit concluded £40 billion worthy of business deals. But what preceded the conclusion of these deals was a global pronouncement on openness to Chinese tourists, characterised by the promulgation of a new British/Chinese Visa dispensation of between two to 10 Years multiple entry regime into the UK.

The British are doing that on the back of realising the high value of the Chinese tourists which amounts to some £2,600 per visit and if they motivate as many visits as possible, this will obviously generate immense wealth for business nationally.

On the back of this we have felt outpaced and come December will be announcing a new regime of openness to Chinese tourists, which upgrades them to visa on arrival. This announcement will be made by President Mugabe on the occasion of the Chinese President State visit. The Chinese lead global tourism arrivals at 100-million which will double by 2030. So if you are sitting in your tourism strategy engine room as Minister and you fail to plan for this exponential rise in Chinese outbound traffic, then you should not be in the job. This openness will extend to other source critical source markets – India and Nigeria as examples.

Q: What is being done to improve the country’s infrastructure to support the tourism industry?

The first signal that we’re working on Zimbabwe’s infrastructure is the commissioning of the new Victoria Falls airport. It’s a $150-million upgrade which will be ready at the end of 2015. Similar upgrades are taking place around our other two airports – Bulawayo and Harare. Looking to the future, Victoria Falls will be the hub to connect international traffic to that destination and then distribute tourists from Victoria Falls internally into Zimbabwe.

The future of destination openness lies in several areas: forging global alliances, in code-sharing and technical partnerships; development of airports that can land wide bodied aircraft; and government intervention in creating an enabling visa regime which will make the airports viable. Before 1998, when we came under the international media onslaught as a result of our land reform programme, Harare International Airport was busier than South Africa’s Oliver Tambo Airport, handling 48 international carriers. As part of our recovery strategy we need to bring back that activity before we can talk about growth. We are around 14 airlines now, so we still have many to entice back before we can talk of our glory days.

The Zambia-Zimbabwe open visa scheme – the KAZA Univisa – is being piloted on the back of the the 20th UNWTO General Assembly legacy projects. We are going to the second pilot stage now which will bring in Angola, Botswana and Namibia. The third and final stage will open up the entire Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) to a single system.

There is no secret in tourism other than opening up; open skies and open borders. Today 53 percent of the world’s global travellers arrive by air – and if you don’t have reliable, friendly and open aviation policies - open skies - you will not enjoy the wealth of the world.

If you don’t align with new revolutionary technology taking place in the ICT sector, which will create electronic borders and compel passports and visas to go electronic, then your product will become extinct. We need to align with an electronic generation that has since migrated from manual processing to the e-world.

Q: Outside of Victoria Falls what are the key elements that could attract more tourists to Zimbabwe?

There is a new value proposition for tourists - not just in Zimbabwe but in Africa in general. We are the last remaining truly authentic biodiversity product in the world. The world will continue visiting Africa for its authenticity, for its originality. Equally, the world will continue to visit Africa to explore its rich natural resources – especially in the mineral and energy sectors. Africa is not lit up and is the least illuminated continent in the world, which represents an opportunity for business tourism and exploration.

More than 90 percent of Africa’s natural resources remain undeveloped which presents an opportunity for business missions. Our continent does not have a recognised system that measures visits beyond leisure. We have not been able to expand our services to fully capture the motivations of travellers who are coming to Africa. When next you’re on a flight from Johannesburg to Harare, ask around and hear where your fellow passengers are going and learn their motivation for going there. You’ll mostly likely find they’re on an Eldorado mission – they are looking for opportunities in mining or energy. Those are the two lead motivational areas for visits into Africa.

You also need to follow the global entrepreneurship conversation behind President Obama’s visit to Kenya. The billionaires that sat around him were all speaking of energy and lighting up of Africa as the most immediate opportunity for enterprise on the continent. I am sure you recall that the first divine instruction by God Himself when he was rebranding the earth was ‘let there be light’. Africa has not been lit up to this very day. So in that context it represents an opportunity for a world that is fast running out of business opportunities elsewhere. The next tangible opportunity is exploiting Africa afresh. Therefore you may find that most visits to Africa are actually for business.

If you are visiting Bulawayo you will probably be on your way to Matabeleland which is arguably one of the world’s top five locations for natural gas, coal and diamonds. So traffic in that area is not necessarily coming to Victoria Falls, they are coming to glean information on the potential of natural gas, diamonds and coal in that area.

Q: What about agro-tourism in Zimbabwe’s tea plantations?

It’s not only the tea plantations. In line with our new tourism policy we are showcasing 100 of our best farms around the big cities. This was done to take the sting out of the land reform programme and show the world the productive stage the programme has entered.

The world is waking up to the reality of unhealthy GM products, which is why we say the future of agriculture is in Zimbabwe. We want to reposition ourselves as the hub, the future source of organic products, which are big sellers in the Middle East and Europe. Agro-tourism will be both a business and tourist attraction.

During the 20th session of the UNWTO General Assembly held in Victoria Falls in 2013, we took delegates to the President’s farm to look at high-tech dairy production. Then we visited the former Reserve Bank Governor’s farm, Dr Gideon Gono – all this was done to bring delegates to the full awareness of our eco-agricultural tourism product and we are developing it still further. As part of the package no future city visit will be complete without a visit to the nearest farm and will include a hands-on farm experience like milking cows. Some farms will offer Jungle Mania and fitness programmes, others old cottage industries of the past. We want our visitors to encounter a true African farm experience.

On the back of this is wellness tourism - which many visitors from Europe are seeking. You may not know this but we are home to the world’s largest number of water springs which lend themselves as natural saunas. We are looking to harness the healing properties of this water (found in the lower Zambezi Binga area) for medical tourism.

The one thing that we have not sold properly is Zimbabwe’s climate. It’s judged by the World Climate Agency to be one of the best, if not the best, in the world. Zimbabwe’s climate in itself is therapeutic - which was why Cecil John Rhodes (founder of the southern African territory of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe) regularly visited - it provided relief to his recurring rheumatism. Zimbabwe is a natural incubator for infertile women – we have had many testimonies from European women about their infertility and that it was cured by Zimbabwe’s weather. Just the weather itself is a natural fertility prescription!

Q: What message do you have for those considering Zimbabwe as their next vacation destination?

Peace and security of our visitors in the wake of global terrorism threats (who see tourists as a soft target) makes this aspect a critical decision of the traveller. Notwithstanding propaganda on Zimbabwe, we are in fact an African peace haven. I challenge anyone to cite a single incident of insecurity which confronted a tourist in Zimbabwe in the last 30 years! You will not find one. We are a very peaceful destination which families and individuals can enjoy with the utmost guarantees of peace and security.

We are good for business and that is very important when taking into consideration events that have happened in North Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. It does not matter how attractive your tourism package is, if you cannot guarantee peace, stability and security, then it will not be attractive to tourism.

In recent years we have been a favourite destination for conferencing. Our next major conference is happening in the first week of December – the ICASA HIV/Aids Conference - with 7,000 delegates. Since the UNWTO convention, Victoria Falls alone has hosted over thirty major conferences which is a confirmation of how the mass markets are feeling about coming to Zimbabwe.

So, all that’s left for me to say is, if you only visit two African countries, visit Zimbabwe, twice. It’s a World of Wonders!