Rainbow Tourism Group Limited which has hotels in Harare, Bulawayo and Victoria Falls has shown hopes in the new Zimbabwean government as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tendai McGerald Madziwanyika anticipates that the company will benefit more from the new dispensation. Madziwanyika showed confidence that the country is going to have more progress in tourism as the new government has been accepted at a global level.
“RTG is confident that the new dispensation shall turn around the country’s tourism… you do not risk loosing your money when investing in tourism,” said the RTG CEO.
Tourism grew by 4 percent internationally but did not perform to its fullest capacity in Zimbabwe as the country did not have a normal economy according to Madziwanyika.
RTG also hopes to perform well this year following the “bloodless transfer of power” that took place in Zimbabwe’s political corridors. The political developments which led to a change in Zimbabwe’s leadership took place in one of RTG’ s property, the Harare International Conventional Center (HICC).
“This hotel is known globally… the events that led to the new dispensation took place in here,” said Madziwanyika.
The Zimbabwean government is positive that it will receive 2.5 million tourist arrivals by the end of 2018 after getting 2.1 million in 2016.
RTG is, however, struggling to pay off a debt amounting to US$22 million that has been accumulated in the past. Madziwanyika told investors to the bank that the company managed to reduce from the US$42 million debt US$22 million in the past 5 years.
“We cannot talk about how the debt was accumulated… the staff that was here (when the debt was accumulated) is no longer there,” said Madziwanyika.
The company requires approximately US$16.4 million to settle loans from National Social Security Authority (NSSA).
RTG was established in 1992 as part of the Government’s commercialization programme. The company in 2016 closed one of its hotels in Beitbridge after making a loss due to unsustainable operational costs.
