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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe (TBCZ) says the country should adopt a new normal approach and allow industry to operate under strict health protocols that also include incentivising vaccinated citizens by allowing them to travel.

The tourism sector is the hardest hit by Covid-19 because of international and local travel restrictions.

TBCZ president Mr Wengayi Nhau said companies are now contemplating further laying off workers and closing because of lack of business.

Domestic travel that had shown potential in the absence of international tourism has been affected by intercity travel ban while closure of land borders has also compounded the situation.

Mr Nhau said businesses and people now understand the new normal that Covid-19 is around.

He said Government has supported industry by availing vaccinations and deliberately promoting tourism workers as frontline workers.

He said the country should ride on the vaccination success story and allow those who have been inoculated to travel as an incentive, borrowing from other countries that have adopted the trend.

“This now calls for us as industry and members of the public to learn to live in this new normal. We are in trouble and we are saying to Government,you gave us vaccines, let’s try and benchmark on the international standards where citizens are being incentivised to be vaccinated by allowing those who have been vaccinated to travel,” said Mr Nhau.

He said it is unfortunate that tourism is fragile and reacts faster to closure and slowly to reopening as people take time to plan to travel.

Mr Nhau said continuous opening and closing of the industry does not inspire confidence in the market.

He said arrivals had improved in October last year and a few months ago when the industry reopened before the recent Delta wave eroded all the gains.

Mr Nhau said some companies had started re-hiring staff while domestic tourism was picking as the trends looked promising.

“Instead of closing hotels, conference facilities and restaurants, we can enforce social distancing and allow 50 percent capacity. There is no way we can dream of a viable tourism industry without land borders especially Victoria Falls and Kazungula because of their geographical location, they are our golden triangle and unique selling point.

“Let’s have a pilot programme of opening borders and limiting activity to bona fide tourists with Covid-19 tourism visas. That can be a springboard for our industry recovery,” said Mr Nhau.

He said there is a need for the country to be pro-active and incentivise businesses and people so as to maximise on opportunities and even attract airlines.

Mr Nhau said the tourism industry had adopted strict Covid-19 protocols and is prepared to open.

“As far as preparation is concerned, we are much more prepared which is why we encourage members to get vaccinated,” he said.

Mr Nhau said tourism’s major business comes from conferences and meetings hence the need for relaxation of restrictions on meetings.

He said allowing conferences to go ahead will serve jobs, the economy and sustain the industry until such a time when things normalise. — @ncubeleon