ZIMBABWE: Ekhayeni African Village Depicts Real Cultural Tourism In Africa

Zonfa director, Victor Marufu said that the opening of the village built on four hectares of architectural beauty and creative design in Harare will bring an assortment of different ways of living, stimulating a healthy community and promoting African cultures.

“The opening of Ekhayeni — The African Village brings the taste of the real Africa, all encapsulated within a shopping environment that has been designed to entertain and inspire, while promoting cultural and heritage tourism,” Marufu said.

African nations have lacked a forum to showcase and sell produce as well as showing off their expertise, so we have stepped up and we are offering a unique market place.

He said the village will blend the desires and needs of any shoppers as it will feature food outlets, farmers’ markets, children’s play centre, events centre, music studio, art studio, hair studio and nail bar, communication centre, herbal shop, tour operators and travel agencies, African couture outlets, art and craft shops and plants and herbs nursery.

The events centre will be the heartbeat of our village as it will host many functions including, cultural festivals, fashion shows, music festivals and competitions, he said.

Marufu said the music studio will offer educational classes for pre-schoolers up to teens, adding that there will be an early childhood music education programme to be taught by qualified teachers.

Art classes at our studio are designed to intentionally develop the inner artist, having been structured around weekly themes encouraging experimentation and creativity with the aim of unleashing the artist within, he said.

Our art and craft shop will carry extraordinary, exotic and unique collections of African arts and craft products, offered at the most competitive prices.

He said the African couture outlets will not just be about clothing, but visual statements that are part of art and fashion.

Meanwhile, ZCT president Tichaona Hwingwiri says that the tourism sector in the country is losing potential revenue due to lack of a well-serviced route network around Zimbabwe by scheduled air service providers.

The lack of a well-serviced route network around Zimbabwe by scheduled air service providers is a worry, especially as foreign visitors prefer to fly in and out of destinations and not travel long distances by road, he said.

Airlines have also expressed concern that repatriation of funds to airlines servicing our destination through the IATA ,International Air Transport Association, Fund is slow and debilitating, and will have an effect of making Zimbabwe look unreliable to potential and existing carriers servicing this country.

IATA suspended Air Zimbabwe from its account settlement system in 2012 due to non-payment of fees, thereby dealing a major blow to the struggling airline. The airline is still struggling to pay $3,5 million it owes IATA.

Hwingwiri also outlined a range of challenges affecting tourism growth, and these include both macro and micro issues.

He said self-drive tourism to Zimbabwe and domestic tourism has been significantly affected by the huge number and aggressiveness of police roadblocks.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police has increased roadblocks on the country’s highways to maintain peace, but the high number of checkpoints has been criticised as being excessive and discouraging to tourists.

Tourism players have tried to engage the police to get them to reduce roadblocks to match international standards to no avail.

Hwingwiri also noted that reduced spending power among Zimbabwean consumers has caused a drop-off in travel to local destinations for leisure purposes, while decreased budgets within corporates and other organisations has reduced the number of business and conference opportunities for hospitality operators in particular.

The state of roads to be used by tourists is a major concern, especially in the Eastern Highlands, which is entirely dependent on road transportation of visitors,he said.

Hwingwiri said inadequate levels of access for potential tourists coming to Zimbabwe was also a major problem, although relief has been somewhat forthcoming because of the expansion of the Victoria Falls International Airport and the drive to encourage more airlines with larger aircraft to travel there.

ZIMBABWE: CAA Woeing Lufthansa To Start Flights

Following the opening of the new Victoria Falls International Airport and the success to bring airlines to fly to the new facility ,South African now uses an Airbus A330 for the service while Ethiopian launched flights two weeks ago and Kenya Airways will follow suit in a few weeks time,Zimbabwe Civil Aviation Authority now widened their horizon.

After attending the annual general meeting of the Airports Council International in Lusaka / Zambia recently did new emerge that ZCAA has made serious overtures to Germany's Lufthansa to return to not just Harare but also consider a combined flight to Victoria Falls and a fifth freedom rights onward service to a final destination in Southern Africa.

Nothing could be found out about Lufthansa's reaction to the proposals made but it would be a major coup for the Zimbabwean aviation regulators if an airline of such reputation could return to the country.

LH had to halt services to Harare nine years ago over their inability to repatriate ticket sales and only iron clad assurances that remittances will be made possible as and when requested might persuade the German airline giant to give Zimbabwe a fresh look.

Germany is a major source market for tourists to Zimbabwe who often combine a visit to Victoria Falls with safaris across the country, to explore the Great Zimbabwe Ruins and Matopos National Park's scenic rock formation before moving on to other Southern African countries like Zambia, Botswana, South Africa and Namibia as part of their African journeys.

ZAMBIA: Kaza Uni - Visa A Success

Kaza Uni-Visa became a permanent feature on December 21st last year when launched again in the Zambian city of Livingstone. The agreement was signed between the Governments of Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. The endorsement of the Kaza Uni-visa as a permanent feature at that stage was replacing the pilot phase that started on November 28th 2014 and appears to be a great success already.

With one visa and one payment, visitors to Zambia and Zimbabwe can traverse the two countries without any additional charges. The Kaza Uni-visa also covers those taking day trips to Botswana, which brings the number of countries served to three. The Uni-visa is valid for 30 days as long as visitors remain within Zambia and Zimbabwe and restrict themselves to park visits in Botswana

Under the new phase, the number of eligible countries has also been increased from 40 to 65.

The Kaza Uni-visa is obtainable from the following border posts in Zambia and Zimbabwe on request:

– Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula International Airport in Livingstone

– Victoria Falls land border in Livingstone

– Kazungula land border with Botswana

– Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka

– Victoria Falls International Airport

– Victoria Falls land border in Falls Town, Zimbabwe

– Harare International Airport

Plans are underway to consider and accept electronic applications and to extend the Kaza visa to Angola and Namibia in due course to further encourage cross border regional tours by international tourists.

ZIMBABWE: Victoria Falls International Airport To Be Commissioned

Refurbishment and construction at the new Victoria Falls International Airport are complete, reports the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe.

According to Public Relations Manager, Annajulia Hungwe, all the planned works on the new-look airport have been completed, paving way for the official commissioning of the airport on Friday.

Hungwe said that the development project entailed construction of a new international terminal building with the necessary passenger processing facilities; construction of a new 4km runway and associated taxiways; and construction of a new air traffic control tower with associated equipment. A new fire station, sewer ponds and water reservoir have also been completed.

The project also entailed the refurbishment of the old terminal building, which was converted into a domestic terminal, and the expansion of car parks to accommodate the anticipated increased demand for parking space.

Operators in the tourism industry have welcomed the commissioning of the new airport, which now has the capacity to handle 1.5 million passengers per annum.

Africa Albida Tourism Chief Executive, Ross Kennedy, said the new airport should take the destination and region to a new level in terms of arrivals.

“The socio-economic benefits will be widespread as increased and new access drives the tourism sector’s growth with arrivals from additional source markets.” Kennedy said there was a lot of interest in the new Victoria Falls International Airport at the recent World Travel Market in London.

“I met with many tour operators, media and airlines at the show, and I can confirm that the interest is very high and that the travel industry is excited by the opening of the new airport.

“Zimbabwe remains a ’hot destination’ on the schedules of many tour operators across the globe,” Kennedy said.

ZIMBABWE: Airlines Admire Victoria Falls International Airport

Turkish Airlines and Emirates could be the first international airlines to agree to operate flights into Victoria Falls on completion of the US$150 million expansion of the facility. The Victoria Falls International Airport is currently undergoing a multi-million dollar facelift and expansion, which is due to be completed at the end of this month.

Emirates is already operating daily flights into Harare from Dubai while Turkish Airlines, which says it has the world's fourth largest flight network with 221 flight destinations in 98 countries, would be making its maiden appearance into the country.

The introduction of more flights into the resort town would improve accessibility for foreign tourists, riding on their extensive global networks.

The big carriers will serve as a vital artery routing Western tourists and travellers from other markets into Zimbabwe without having to go through the burden of switching airlines.

This is projected to boost arrivals from markets such as England, which is not served by direct flights from Zimbabwe.

Arrivals from Britain and Ireland declined by eight percent in 2014 to 38 600.

The Asian markets, which have been affected by connectivity hurdles, suffered a combined 19 percent retreat to 42 800 in 2014, from 52 900 in 2013.

In Zimbabwe, operators have been repositioning businesses in the resort town.

For instance, Africa Albida Tourism, proprietors of Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, has announced new strategies to expand in Zimbabwe's prime leisure destination ahead of the projected boom in tourist numbers.

The boom will be supported by the upgrade of Victoria Falls International Airport, which it hopes would be a game changer.

"British Airways, Ethiopian Airways, Qatar and Emirates are involved in one way or another in exploring options to fly into Victoria Falls," said chief executive officer and Atta Chair Ross Kennedy.

"We have to market the fact that we have a brand new international airport to the airlines that want to fly into Victoria Falls. We have set aside resources to assist the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe in that effort."

SOUTH AFRICA: Fastjet New Flights Between South Africa And Zimbabwe

Fastjet has launched two new routes from Johannesburg to Harare and Victoria Falls.

The Johannesburg-Harare route will start on February 1 and operate daily with an additional daily flight expected to be added by fastjet in due course.

The initial daily flights will depart Harare at 06h15 and land in Johannesburg at 07h55, with a flight time of 1 hour 40 minutes. The return flight from Johannesburg to Harare departs at 08h40, landing at 10h15.

Flights from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls will start on February 3, and will initially operate three times a week on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Finalised slots and timetables for these flights are still to be confirmed by the respective airports. Tickets for flights will go on sale this week, with fares are starting from R1,339.18 (€73) one-way, excluding airport taxes.

Return flights from Harare International Airport and Victoria Falls International Airport to OR Tambo International will operate using fastjet’s modern Airbus A319 jet aircraft with seating for up to 144 passengers.

“Making it easier for more entrepreneurs, traders, tourists and other visitors to travel between South Africa and Zimbabwe will strengthen the countries’ relationship, boost tourism and business sectors, create jobs and contribute significantly to both countries’ economic growth,” says Richard Bodin, fastjet’s CCO.