Time to visit Zimbabwe ?

I am a Zimbabweanite.

No not a Knight of the Order of Zimbabwe but more so a knight in shining armour out to promote their tourism industry ! Goes back to the day back in 1978 when sitting at the Mapopoma Bar in the Elephant Hills Hotel on a saturday afternoon, we were hit by two mortar shells from ZIPRA cardres from across the Zambezi in Zambia. Damn near lost my Pilsner in that moment ! A moment of simple anger at the intrusion made way to the entire bar asking our attackers across for a beer...... Hell, its a Saturday afternoon in Rhodesia ( the previous country name for Zimbabwe ) and we all need to get on eh ?

The early independence years were special in Zimbabwe for the travel & tourism industry. I lived in Harare from 1980 through to the end of 1982 traveling extensivily by road & plane throughout the country. The Eastern Highlands were magnificent. Time spent on lake Kariba on a fully kitted out houseboat were legendry, revisiting Victoria Falls where the same reverlers I met in 1978 did there saturday " thing ". The Great Zimbabwe evoked thoughts of the slave trade, proud people at their Monomatapa backed up with more great hospitality. As the eighties became the nineties, tourism within Zimbabwe boomed to awesome proportions. New proeprteis were built, many exceptional hospitality doyens were created ( John GREY, Roy MEIRING to name two of them ) and credited with establishing a first world hospitality industry within Zimbabwe. Along came 2000, farm invasions, hyper inflation and a government lacking in the skills and mindset to drive the economy of the bread basket of Africa and the wheels of tourism and just about every other industry fell off.

I have to say that it was not from the lack of initiative, drive and enthusiasm of the private sector during this time that there were a number of busineses that did infact thrive. Against incredible odds both politically and economically, there exsists a breed of Zimbabwean business folks who have the ability to make it work ! In tourism terms, Victoria Falls became an enclave of dedicated, sophisticated and very able owners/management teams backed up with solid and reliable staff that not only did a holding job with their properties but in many cases added new capacity, brought out new product and maintained both staff spirit and guest experience at a high level. Unfortunately, the rest of the Zimbabwean tourism industry suffered greatly. Until 2009.

This pivitol year saw the Victoria Falls Team not only add to their town offereings but also growing their influence to cover the massive Hwange National Park region, Bumi Hills on the Matusadona range of mountains just outside Kariba and through association, the capital Harare. They secured aircraft to move guests in between these destinations. They invested millions of US $ in the refurbishing and redefining of the properties at these destinations. They indicated that not only was Victoria Falls very much open for business but so are other key destinations that bring traditional Zimbabwean hospitality to bear.

To describe Zimbabwean hospitality is like trying to understand Tiger WOODS golf game, easy to see but impossible to fathom and yet close to brilliance. The people of this country are the very best in this provision. They are naturally social, they love to please and when it comes to providing an exceptional experience, well take a look at the number of inbound travelers now visiting Zimbabwe who have been before.

It is said that to experience the very best, seek out the very best. Sailing on Lake Kariba as your chef prepares dinner and canapes are served comes close to the night sky at Binga, tracking in the Hwange National Park in the company of highly experienced rangers or witnessing the Falls from your helicopter may in fact move past the best and become your moment of revelation. Come to Zimbabwe and learn to live, experience new thoughts, catch rare moments to cherish forever, just come, I would love to share her brilliance, warmth and humaness with you.

Ciao

Colin J. FRYER.
Centre Stage Travel, Cape Town, South Africa.
Email: info@cstravel.co.za
Welcome to Our Africa.....

In persuit of the elusive One..

This article is specificlly for the southern African travel trade, hello ! I have a question for you: Name the definative property marketing and sales person. Now, why would I want to know this ? Quite simply our industry has a plethora of these animals who trample the ground in their persuit to " get their message " across to us. Some use discounts as their tool, others offer friendship and comp nights, others swan about in perect inexactitudes as effective as an empty bottle of Grug !

No easy task I'll grant you, how on earth do you learn the traits of agents/operators in all of our key overseas markets ? How do you relate to each consultant with meaningful dialogue and repartie ? How do you steer them away from their traditional property sellection and onto yours ? How do you consistently travel to their offices with new, refreshing and interesting product news ? Yup, no easy ask. This elusive One has to understand pressure, think on his feet, have the ability to " get into " the descision makers at these agencies. He has to posess inter personal skills, be able to overcome objections and really so much more. On top of this he is charged with providing a mix of passion, love for his product, knowledge of other product and destination knowledge to his clients. No short term wonder this One !

So do you know this One ? You may well do and if so, tell me who he is please. It may well be one of the doyens of the Private Game Reserves who promalgate the diviness of their offerings, possibly the broad shouldered providers of boutique hotels and their ability to host royality but take the level up, yes, up to a place where in the presence of the One, attention is rivited, all consuming and REAL ! Ah the word rings true, real, not " maybe so " or " if " but true and real.

What mere mortal soul could bring this off consistantly with a number of properties and to so many followers ? What person so filled with commitment, ability, passion for our industry remain burning bright in our misted sky of marketing & sales folks ? You may well know him personally, I do, well and for the last eight years have witnessed the growth & development of a new age perveyor of quality properties take on a beach property where there occupancies are in the thirties and move on when they hit eighty three percent.

So, who is this marvel, I hear you scream at me. Contact me on info@cstravel.co.za and I will share the answer with you, real and true.

Ciao

Colin J. FRYER.
Centre Stage Travel, Cape town, South Africa.
Email: info@cstravel.co.za

Ya gotta have faith, Africa does.....

I live in Africa, have done so for the last third of a century.

Gives me a degree of understanding, experience and depth of belief in what Africa has in store for our visitors, especially those who next month come to witness the FIFA Soccer World Cup. They will arrive in their thousands, close on 400 thousand I am informed. Sjoe, that's a couple of tons of quivering flesh aimed at absorbing some of the very best football imaginable in ten of our top cities from way up north to my back door, Cape Town.

These good folks will arrive with their friends, family and colleagues looking to support and motivate their home country and for the few, witness a culmination of matches on the road to the final in Egoli ( The place of Gold ) in Johannesburg.

So what can these fans expect in my country ? Smiles, loads of smiling faces. A traffic jam or too for sure, we are good at these, scenic beauty of gigantic proportions and stadiums so well designed and positioned that they will be forgiven to believe they are back home at their national stadium.

We have had our fair share of doubts as to our ability to host you folks, but this is behind us now. We are now applying the final coat of WELCOME paint, running off our last few thousand vuvuzelas ( elongated trumpets ) and by the first week of June will be awaiting your arrival. You are all WELCOME !