TOURISM & WILDLIFE WEEK CONT'D [1]

Let me thank @mentorshipzim for reaching out to me to share my story in tourism. I am going to present as follows:

1. About myself
2. Our/my involvement in tourism
3. Zimbabwe tourism industry
4. Conclusion

Let us start:

My name is Prosper Kuwa. I am based in Honde Valley. I have been in the tourism space for almost 4 yrs. I co-founded Shambazuva Tourism Consulting a tourism and hospitality consulting firm registered and domiciled in Zimbabwe. I will start off with my academic background :

I attended Eastern Highlands Pri School. I proceeded to Sagambe Sec Sch and St Columbas High for O & A Level respectively. I was one of the top students at both O & A Level. I then proceeded to UZ where I persued an Honours In Accountancy. Thereafter I enrolled with UNISA for CTA

I pursued articles training with a local audit firm. I qualified as a Chartered Accountant, CA(Z). Post articles I worked as a Business & Advisory Manager. While working one of the key services we offered was hotel consulting. I took this opportunity to learn the hotel space.

INVOLVEMENT IN TOURISM

I grew up at the iconic Aberfoyle Lodge in Honde Valley. It is an adventure, holiday and birding destination. Staying here I was exposed to tourism at young age and was fascinated with what happened there. I grew up with an eye of detail on activities here

When I was in grade 6 I met Abasi Jana. He was a bird guide and now based in Malawi. He introduced me to Royal Society For The Protection of Birds. I later joined Bird Life Zimbabwe and learnt a lot from the late Lesley Marsdorp. I learnt about birds and birding.

I have extensive knowledge of Honde Valley birds ranging from identification, their feeding and breeding habits, habitat and migration. I later introduced these activities in my secondary school under a conservation club. I was also involved in bird awareness programmes.

While staying at Aberfoyle I also got to work with expert bird guides. It was in this process that I appreciated the work of guides.

Fast Forward: In 2016 having realised little was being done to promote Honde Valley tourism I started Honde Valley Sightings @Hsightings (HVS).

HVS is a destination management agency that helps you plan your next adventure in the Eastern Highlands with primary focus on Honde Valley. We help travellers with information, bookings, tour guides. Honde Valley has amazing tourism assets not found in other parts of the country.

Having started HVS we faced many challenges. We sought for a tourism consulting firm locally and couldnt find one at that time. We had these challenges for two years. In 2018 I decided we start a consulting firm focusing on tourism and hospitality. Shambazuva was born.

Owing to my experience in audit & advisory we started Shambazuva Tourism Consulting @shambazuva. Shambazuva is a tourism & hospitality firm. It was established to provide expert and professional advice to players in the tourism space. At Shambazuva we offer the following services

(a) Travel Magazine
(b) Destination branding and marketing
(c) Tourism investment advisory
(d) Risk and compliance
(e) Recruitment and training
(f) Market research
(g) Facilities audits (quality audits, revies etc not financial audits)
(e) Strategy
(f) Content development
ETC

Shambazuva is registered as a company. The company provides advisory solutions to tourism industry. We are striving to lead in this space. We work mostly with private players. We are also a bridge to the diaspora community seeking to invest back home in tourism industry.

With our involvement from a consultancy perspective we have gathered extensive knowledge of Zim tourism. For eg we have profiled investment opportunities in Eastern Highlands and these are available on [email protected].

At this stage let me move into Zim tourism

Zim tourism is in need of open, flexible and innovative minds to stimulate, grow and future proof the industry from future shocks. Zimbabwe has tremendous tourism assets. Proper solutions are needed to grow the industry. I see the need of proper solutions.

The anticipated size of the industry is US$5bn. Current size is US$1.3bn. There is a gap of US$3bn. This gap represent opportunities to be tapped. The gap can be achieved thru proper solutions. Thus we founded Shambazuva. We help to offer solutions from entry levl to operations.

Solutions to the African tourism industry will help to break from old ways into new ways. My stern belief is tertiary institutions should begin to produce graduates who are capable to provide solutions in this industry as there is need for more solutions.

ZIMBABWE TOURISM INDUSTRY

Zim tourism industry is administered by Zim Tourism Authority who regulate the activities of the industry. There are are association affilaited to ZTA. To be a player you have to be affiliated to ZTA thru licensing and belong to a recognised association

To be a player in Zim tourism you identify the space you need to occupy, register your company, obtain tax clearance, register with ZTA for licensing. To register with ZTA you need to fufill their requirements stioulated under each category on their website.

Further to your registration you need to continously fufill some requirements one year after the other from regulation, levies, taxation and operations perspective. It is also in this spacr that we at Shambazuva assist.

With the COVID-19 pandemic we also developed a Post Covid-19 Strategy for Promotion and Development of Domestic Tourism, something we shared with ZTA.

CONCLUSION:

1. Zimbabwe tourism needs open, flexible and innovative minds to stimulate and grow it.
2. There is a US$3bn gap to achieve the anticipated US$5bn market size. This represents opportunity.
3. Zim has a lot of opportunities which needs to be tapped - new products

CONCLUSION CONT'D
4. Tertiary institutions should lead the space of innovation and solutions in this space.
5. While it is a good industry to be most projects are capital intensive. You need good investment strategy.

CONCLUSION CONT'D
6. The industry is in need of solutions. Solutions! Solutions! Solutions!
7. Domestic tourism is requring a robust authentic Zimbabwean approach to stimulate it. It has been hanging for long. With Covid-19 we were found without a solid domestic tourism platform.

[email protected]
0772137328