City Link, RTG in tourism partnership.

By Augustine Moyo

DOMESTIC tourism, which is showing signs of recovery, has received a further boost following the sealing of a deal between City Link Luxury Coaches — an indigenous luxury coach firm — and the Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG).

The deal will see City Link and RTG tailor holiday packages for locals to destinations where the group has resort facilities. RTG has also unveiled a US$60 per person, bed and breakfast package for this festive season.
This development has also seen City Link invest more than US$1,2 million in the purchase of brand new luxury coaches this year alone.
City Link general manager Mr Gerald Matapure told The Sunday Mail Business that his organisation will be adding more luxury coaches to the current fleet so that they are able to service the country’s prime tourist destinations fully.

“We recently added a brand new coach to the existing fleet and it began operating last week. It will service the Harare-Bulawayo and Bulawayo-Victoria Falls route.

“There has been a gap on the market for a luxury coach service servicing the Harare-Victoria Falls route. We have since purchased a five-star luxury coach at a cost of US$460 000 for that purpose.
“We are looking at introducing another luxury coach between Harare-Masvingo (Great Zimbabwe) and another luxury coach between Harare-Mutare (Eastern Highlands),” explained Mr Matapure.
City Link will unveil the Harare-Mutare service in February next year. The move is aimed at boosting and promoting domestic tourism between Harare and the Eastern Highlands.

“However, the only major headache at the moment is the availability of finance on the market. We are only accessing six-month finance and there is no way we can compete at par with South African luxury coach operators.

“In South Africa, the financing is in such a way that luxury coaches are paid for in six years and the operators pay as little as R30 000 a month for 72 months yet here in Zimbabwe we have to pay back in an amount over US$400 000 in just six months.
“Liquidity challenges are hurting us the most because financial institutions cannot access lines of credit which business can then access in turn to improve the tourism product.”

Zimbabweans hardly understand the painful effect of how illegal Western sanctions are making it increasingly difficult to transact or do business in this country.

“We had our loan for the new luxury coach we just purchased, approved and we had to wait for more than two months to have the funds released to pay the manufacturer who was becoming impatient while waiting for payment.

“We could have lost the coach to other regional markets in the process prejudicing the Zimbabwean traveller and the tourism sector which depends largely on transport for it to survive.”
There is nothing much that the Government can do at the moment to support indigenous bus operators as long as there are sanctions that are making it difficult for capital to flow to Zimbabwe and what business needs is long-term financing which is not available.

Domestic tourism has been negatively affected by the lack of a competitively priced and luxurious mode of transport between key cities and the tourist destinations. City Link has also set up a state-of-the art waiting room at the Rainbow Towers premises for travellers, cementing its relationship with the RTG. He added that his organisation was grateful to RTG chief executive officer Mrs Chipo Mtasa and her management team for understanding his organisation’s vision and believing in it, thereby allowing City Link to operate as a luxury coach company from the Rainbow Towers.

Most routes to tourist destinations such as the magnificent Victoria Falls were serviced by South Africa’s Unifreight under the Blue Arrow brand.
However, Blue Arrow pulled out of the country, leaving a gap in the market which indigenous players had to fill.

Tourism experts contend that for domestic tourism to thrive, it needs to be supported with sufficient infrastructure such as accommodation, communications, road network, financial institutions, chief being an efficient and reliable transport systems.
Domestic tourism is anticipated to play a critical role in ensuring that the sector attains the projected growth rates.