Published: 19 August 2013

OUTGTOING Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi says tourist arrivals in the resort town of Victoria Falls are benefiting source markets financially and not Zimbabwe due to misalignments in accounting systems.

Minister Mzembi, who was addressing the media which was touring the resort town ahead of the United Nations Tourism Organisation General Assembly next week, reiterated the need to introduce a satellite accounting system to ensure tourist host countries benefitted financially from arrivals.

The majority of tourist source markets continue to benefit financially from selling the Victoria Falls through packaging it in a way that disadvantages Zimbabwe.

In most instances, tourists are booked in South Africa from where they are flown to Victoria Falls for sight-seeing after which they are taken back to spend their money.

He said Zimbabwe was only getting the 'bodies' but not the money.

"We receive bodies and the money is spent elsewhere. That is why we have asked the UNWTO that we need to develop a tourism satellite accounting model where in the future we will be able to attribute income appropriately to source," he said.
- herald

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