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Dr Karikoga Kaseke

Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE has lost millions of dollars in potential revenue through missed opportunities to attract investments from international markets at the just ended International Tourism Bourse (ITB) in Germany.

Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive officer, Dr Karikoga Kaseke, said the loss of the potential revenue was due to delays in payment for booked space for local operators at the world’s biggest tourism fair.

“From a business point of view we did relatively well although there were challenges that affected our participation to maximise on what that show was availing to us.

“Zimbabwe lost hundreds of millions of dollars in potential revenue due to poor planning at the ITB. The first challenge was that the space that we had at the show was too small. We were not given the money that we had requested for until we went to ITB,” said Mr Kaseke.

He said ZTA in October last year requested $140 000 to facilitate their participation at ITB but only received $107 000 when they were already at the tourism fair.

“Our budget was reduced by people who thought they can decide for a marketer how to market a destination. All the 31 operators who were at our stand could not get booths because each operator should get a booth to operate from where they meet their own contacts,” said Dr Kaseke.

As a result of the challenges faced during the fair, ZTA says it only managed to secure booths for 20 tour operators.

“From a business point of view, you don’t do business like that at a travel show. A travel show books you with your buyers in advance and they ask you to pay for the travel show at least three months before the show starts.

“So when you are going to ITB without you being in the catalogue, what it means is that you cannot access any online booking because it (online booking) can only be accessed by people who have paid,” he said.

The ITB catalogue was produced and finalised in December last year.

Mr Kaseke said the buyers that Zimbabwe tour operators met during ITB were people who would have cancelled their meetings with tour operators from other countries.

The ZTA boss noted that if Zimbabwe tour operators had made prior appointments with the buyers at ITB, they could have sealed deals with medium to long term impact. “And these deals would have brought in money into Zimbabwe, which money has been forgone because of our lack of preparation, planning and all sorts of things that were associated with the show.

“This is why we are saying we should not do business like this in this era (new dispensation). We don’t want to continue painting a miserable picture of this destination called Zimbabwe,” said Dr Kaseke.

Due to the funding boob, he said, some ZTA employees were yet to be paid February salaries as the money was used to cover the funding gap that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning was supposed to have covered at the tourism show.

“We have since paid some of the workers but the senior managers from E3 and above have not received their salaries. We are still trying to come to terms and get the money from the Ministry of Finance,” said Dr Kaseke.

Despite the challenges ZTA faced at ITB, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Prisca Mupfumira was “very” engaging and interactive.

“On the other hand, the Minister (Mupfumira) was very engaging and explained the Zimbabwean situation to everyone she interacted with,” he said.

@okazunga