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Business Reporter
THE tourism sector remains optimistic that it will bounce back post-Covid-19 and is investing in human capital and service excellence as part of its recovery strategy, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) acting chief executive, Mr Givemore Chidzidzi, has said.

The sector has been severely battered by the outbreak of Covid-19, which has seen most operaters at home and abroad, halting business while thousands of workers have lost jobs, with a terrible impact down the value chain. International travel restrictions and other lockdown measures have seen a drastic drop in revenue as the sector depended more on foreign clients with minimal domestic input to the bottom line.

Working closely with Government, industry players are now seized with finding ways to bring the sector back on its feet so as to save jobs and the economy at large.

“The aim is to develop an integrated approach to service excellence in the tourism sector. We have to rationalise our efforts and develop a way of doing things that will guide service excellence in the sector and create an enabling environment for developing a positive customer service culture,” he said.

As part of the drive, ZTA and the tourism industry in partnership with the Global Leadership Summit (GLS) are set to host a service excellence training webinar tomorrow, which will bring together key industry players and experts.

GLS country director, Mr Harold Chilowa, said provision of exceptional customer experience in the tourism sector needs a coordinated approach.

“An exceptional service excellence culture will not come by accident, it will come by design and time investment in learning from industry experts. This is why we have decided to bring the best pair of hands in hospitality service excellence expertise, in form of Horst Schultze, founder and chairman of the prestigious Capella Hotel Group,” he said.

ZTA head of corporate affairs and publicity, Mr Godfrey Koti, said the service excellence webinar was part of the essential pillars of implementing the three phased destination recovery plan, which will be focusing on domestic, regional and international source markets. He said the webinar was targeting all tourism operators.