By Daniel Itai, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA)’s spokesperson, Godfrey Koti, has said that the southern African country has so far lost around US$1 billion due to the current COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were not spared from the brutality that was brought by COVID-19. We have lost a lot of revenue. We lost around US$1 billion we expected an output of US$1.5 billion this year but now we just must accept what’s on the ground.
Moreso, they are plus or minus 20 000 jobs that are hanging by a thread, but we have tried to assist where we can.
However, we have put together a tourism growth and recovery strategy which has three pillars which include, domestic, regional, and international tourism.
On domestic travel, we have made sure we offer affordable packages to our domestic market which is both marketable and enticing because we haven’t been really focussing on domestic tourism,” said the ZTA spokesperson.
Moreover, from tomorrow the country will be allowing international travel from within and outside the country.
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“As a sector, we have worked immensely hard to the protocols that were set by the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare. We are ready because we have been working hard in putting these measures into place.
Tourists must never worry about their health safety because we have made sure that those in the tourism sector have adhered to the COVID-19 regulations.
However, upon arrival one must produce a negative COVID-19 certificate, for those that don’t have they will have to go straight into quarantine. They are quarantine centres that have been set up by the government and of course the tourism sector but it would be highly advisable to have a COVID-19 certificate which is not more than 48 hours old upon arrival,” said Koti.
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