ZIMBABWE could have lost between US$500 million and US$1 billion during the closure of the tourism sector due to the devastating coronavirus lockdown, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) has estimated.<\/p>\n
In an interview with NewZim TV’s Business Brief on NewZimbabwe.com, ZTA spokesperson Godfrey Koti said the pandemic had a crippling impact on the tourism sector.<\/p>\n
Tourism is one of Zimbabwe’s major foreign currency earners.<\/p>\n
The government has since allowed the sector to reopen.<\/p>\n
“It is going to be a very slow reopening. It’s going to be a very calculated reopening. The pandemic has obliterated tourism, it absolutely butchered tourism in terms of returns,” Koti said.<\/p>\n
“In terms of revenue as Zimbabwe, we are sitting on a loss of between US$500 million to US$1 billion worth of income if we are judging with what we contributed to the fiscus last year and what we have targeted as growth.”<\/p>\n
The ZTA spokesperson said the restart of the tourism industry was a great relief for grassroots communities who stand to benefit more from rejuvenated operations.<\/p>\n
“The pandemic has a lot of instability to the economy and the contribution of the sector in its totality right from the grassroots level up to the top-dollar within the national GDP (gross domestic product).<\/p>\n
“We are setting out what is called a tourism recovery strategy which we remodelled saying the tourism community must have its own economy of about $5 billion dollars by 2025. That is why we are promoting the culture of travel among the locals,” Koti said.<\/p>\n