“Masvingo is largely dependent on domestic tourism and on average these constitute 92% of clients in accommodation facilities. Conferencing business greatly influences utilisation of facilities. Unfortunately, the current economic hardships have had an adverse impact on conferencing,” reads the report in part.

“On the contrary, Kariba and Hwange experienced positive growth in occupancies. Kariba had a significant increase of 11% which is attributed to improved access by Air Zimbabwe in the resort.”

The tourism regulator says arrivals from mainland Africa registered 811 717 foreign tourist arrivals, up from 745 566 in 2014 representing a 9% increase.

Arrivals from Europe fell marginally by 1% with declines in major markets including France, Germany, Italy, Nordic Countries and Spain pulling down the overall performance of the region.

“Arrivals from the Asian market fell by 8% to 14 999from 16 370 in 2014 with Japan and South Korea (the major markets) declining too. However, China’s performance was quite encouraging, rising by 46% during the period under review,” the report reads.

“The Americas continue to be the second greatest overseas region for Zimbabwe since 2014. The region has maintained an overall market share of 3%.”

The report further shows that the Middle East continues to trail behind in its contribution to total arrivals into the country contributing less than 1% of the market share.-Staff Writer