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Tourism ministry, ZimStats to conduct survey on visitors

Business
THE Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry in partnership with the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency will next month conduct a survey to obtain information on various characteristics of visitors into the country, a government official has said.

THE Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry in partnership with the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency will next month conduct a survey to obtain information on various characteristics of visitors into the country, a government official has said.

BY TARISAI MANDIZHA

The Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) Visitor Exit Survey (VES) will cost $250 000 and the exercise would be conducted over a period of 12 months.

TSA generally can be defined as a statistical instrument designed to measure tourism performance and its contribution to the national economy.

Tourism and Hospitality Industry minister Walter Mzembi told journalists last week that the Africa Development Bank would fund the survey.

Mzembi said with a tourism satellite account in place, government and the private sector would be better equipped to make informed decisions, design policies and strategies for tourism development and improvements.

“As part of this process, we will be carrying out a Visitor Exit Survey for a period of 12 months at selected ports of entry starting from July 2015. The VES is a sample survey designed to obtain detailed information on various characteristics of visitors to Zimbabwe,” Mzembi said. “Such information cannot be obtained through the usual ‘embarkation’ (immigration declaration form) forms and ‘disembarkation’ (exit card) cards, which visitors complete on entry and exit. The survey involves personal interviews with randomly selected visitors as they leave the country at selected exit/border points.”

He said the information obtained was targeted at providing invaluable input to the development of effective marketing strategies and business decision-making by tourism operators, as well as policy formulation and tourism development planning by government.

Mzembi said the survey design had a randomly selected sample of 25 000 visitors and was stratified by departure points to ensure adequate representation of the main source markets of visitors to Zimbabwe.

He said that the survey was to be conducted at the following ports of entry such as Harare International Airport, Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo (Bulawayo) Airport, Victoria Falls Airport, Victoria Falls Border, Beitbridge Border, Chirundu Border, Forbes (Mutare) Border, Nyamapanda Border, Kazungula Border, and Plumtree Border.

According to statistics from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) Tourism Performance in 2014, tourism receipts were down 3% to $827 million in 2014 from the previous year despite an increase in arrivals, a reflection of a decline in expenditure. In 2013, the sector recorded receipts of $856 million.