CHINHOYI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY NAME RUTENDO PAHLA
REG NUMBER C1213447Q
COURSE SERVICES MARKETING
COURSE CODE CUHT 402
LEVEL 4.1
PROGRAMME BACHELOR OF SCIENCE HONOURS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY
DUE DATE 31 AUGUST 2015
QUESTION: Innovate or die. Explore the central role played by innovation in achieving sustainability and competitiveness of Zimbabwe’s hospitality and tourism sector.

Innovate or die. Explore the central role played by innovation in achieving sustainability and competitiveness of Zimbabwe’s hospitality and tourism sector.
Innovation is a new idea, more effective device or process. It is an inbred human quality that has ensured mankind survives the harsh reality of the world that he lives in and thrives despite all the negatives and challenges of his existence. According to the latest statistics from World Economic Forum (2015) Zimbabwe was ranked 115 out of 141 countries in terms of travel and tourism competitiveness. Without innovation Zimbabwe could easily sink further in the rankings. New idea injection and implementation is of an urgent need in Zimbabwe at the moment in order for it to compete both regionally and internationally. Innovation in sustainable tourism practices is a double edged sword in this endevour as well in that it tackles the issue of damage to the environment at the same cutting operational costs in a number of ways.
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority has been at the helm of pioneering new ideas into the the Zimbabwean tourism and hospitality industry. One way they have done this is by ushering in the Harare and Victoria Falls street carnivals. The street carnival is a borrowed concept from tropical countries, the likes of Brazil, Mauritius and Jamaica. According to Dr Tull (2010) carnivals attract positive media attention, provide the basis upon which strong destination branding can be built and attract overwhelming numbers of visitors to a destination. This view is based upon the premise that tourists are looking forward to having a good time by partaking in the creativity overload associated with street carnivals these include samba dancers, bands, drum marjorites and with good organisation of the event, mainstream popular artists showcasing their talents for free which is a rare spectacle for most.
Tull (2005) identified a number of specific income generating aspects of the carnival. A few of these include music industry, textile, accomodation, airlines, souvenirs, events promotion and security management. The variety and scope of these various economic sectors directly benefiting from the event of a carnival show that it is a massive competitiveness booster when it comes to economic viability. On the other hand it is not a sustainable form of income generation in other ways especially when it comes to pollution and cultural degradation. Partying carnivalists are prone to littering the streets and noise pollution. Zimbabwe is a traditionally conservative cultural society a value which is constantly contradicted by the carnival which is characterised by semi- naked female samba dancers and there is a lot of prostitution at the time and rowdy behaviour from the younger tourists alike who might be intoxicated by both alcohol and other recreational drugs.
Moreover another way Zimbabwe was at the forefront of innovation was when it lobbied to host the 2013 UNWTO General Assembly. Its ordinary sessions are held every two years and are attended by delegates from UNWTO, full and associate members, as well as representatives from UNWTO affiliate members. It is essentially the largest gathering of tourism and hospitality represantatives from across the globe, rich and fresh in idea generation and dissemination. Other perceived benefits include an enhanced market perception of the Zimbabwean tourism product based on feedback invited delegates relay back to their respective countries as well as positive media coverage based on how well the event is hosted. Speaking in his keynote adress at the Zimbabwe edition the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon was quoted as saying, “I call on UNWTO members and the global tourism community to examine how best to contribute to sustainable development.” (UNWTO 2013) This was a direct call for tourism players to come up with innovations that ensure sustainability.
Moreso, the ministry of tourism and hospitality in Zimbabwe in conjuction with the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority are working with SADC to create a single VISA for the SADC community. Perceived benefits would include one stop border posts between countries in the region, ease of access to and from countries within the bloc for tourists, less paperwork at border posts and increased tourist movement flows both regional and international. Already Zimbawe and Zambia share a univisa system which has been considered a success by both Zimbabwe and Zambia as it has managed to reduce travel costs and increase accessibility between the two countries. “For the past 20 years SADC was talking and negotiating of a univisa system and the Zimbabwe-Zambia univisa system success is a clear message to SADC that it is possible and with benefits,” said Mr Kaseke the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority Chief Executive Officer (ZBC 2015).
In the same vein Zengeni and Zengeni (2012), suggest that visa requirements be exempted to tourists from more developed economies and emerging markets such as the BRIC nations. By exempting tourists from more economically developed countries from visa restrictions, the tourism and hospitality sector is guranteed to receive more tourists of a higher income bracket meaning they spend more money and contribute more to the national fiscus compared to lesser endowed tourists. However, based on this suggestion the tourism sector runs the risk of discriminating its own customer base in the form of the tourists who are actually indebted to paying visa requirements.
Despite international collaborations efforts propagated by the Zimbabwe Tourism Athourity, closer to home they had launched the not fairly new concept of Township Tourism as it has been used successfully in neighbouring South Africa. The concept was launched in Highfields Harare October 2012 the home of Zimbabwe’s liberation war struggle. The idea was to stimulate sentiment amongst the domestic tourists and create buzz that would hopefully with time permeate into the international market. The initiative was a failure however mainly because the community was not well integrated into the initiative resulting in a disjointed tourism product that quickly lost its flair. However it is was a noble idea as in theory township tourism is supposed to be a source of income generation for the community and boost morale in the impoverished societies that live in the ghetto. Booyens (2010) asserts that township tourism attract tourists who visit destinations to enrich their cultural perspectives of the host community and its environment thereby ensuring sustainable tourism.
Moving on, one of the major concerns for tourists flowing into the country has been security concerns particularly in the hospitality sector. Most hotels have at least at one point in time have had to deal with a security concern from one of their guests. Most thefts occur within the rooms due to poor door locking systems and security measures at the windows. One way hotels have moved in order to restore guest confidence in the area of security is to instal door locking systems that make use of swipe cards, automatically controlled by a computer software and are digitally trackable as to times whenever a door is opened to assist in the event of an investigation. Coupled with CCTV systems in corridors it is becoming harder and harder for the urban criminal to steal from a guest in a well secured hotel that uses latest technology to keep guests and their belongings safe from harm. Guest confidence in a hotel’s security is most likely to increase arrivals to the hotel thereby increasing rooms’ revenue.
For scholars such as Tidd, Bessant and Pavitt (2005) the just above mentioned innovative technology is an example of linear models of innovation whereby the security need was the pull factor and the technological response from the hospitality sector a push factor. However innovation is usually in the form of an incremental nature whereby technology evolves via processes of systems integration, extensive networking with relevant stakeholders to produce flexible and customised response to the end user (Tidd 2006). The hospitality sector has not been immune to this type of innovation judging by the extensive use of property management systems ranging in scope and complexity to the various needs of organisations. To date players in the hospitality sector particularly those in the lodging and hotel industry have various options in property management systems to acquire for their operational usage. These include CLS, Medallion, and Semper which are all effective when applied appropriately. Property management systems reduce check in check out time and allow the front office department to track rooms’ occupancy and other variables like guest information and frequency of visits.
However, the hospitality sector in Zimbabwe has not been known to be a champion of innovation when it comes to idea generation within organisations themselves. The same way tea has been served since time immemorial is the same way it is still been served today. It would be refreshing for once for a guest to arrive at a hotel where tea is served in possibly one radical way that is impossible to forget such that, it is indelibly marked on the guest’s memory to visit the hotel a second time and a third possibly just for the fun of it. Service should be an art such that guest experience is psycologically enhanced since it is an intangible service. Therefore the only way to keep experiencing it is to keep visiting the hotel thus gaining more and more popularity. Radicalising the way we serve our guests and attend to their needs is one way of standing out in the market and creating a strong brand.
In the same vein radical innovation is also one that has been explored in the innovation processes. Radical innovation is defined as an innovation that has a significant impact on a market and on the economic activity of firms in that market. The innovation could, for example, change the structure of the market, create new markets or render existing products obsolete. An example of this is the blue ocean strategy compounded by Kim and Mauborgne (2005). Kim & Mauborgne argue that companies can succeed not by battling competitors, but rather by creating ″blue oceans″ of uncontested market space. They assert that these strategic moves create a leap in value for the company, its buyers, and its employees while unlocking new demand and making the competition irrelevant. An example is the Long Chen Plaza Amusement Park which created a niche market for its developers in providing value entertainment for the little ones, a concept that had not been explored for quite sometime by the Zimbabwean tourism market.
On another note, lack of innovation is stifling Zimbabwean destination competitiveness by the government particularly in the case of tourism tax charged to airlines and hotels which is pegged at 15% of the overal charge. In an article in the Financial Gazzette 27 August 2015 titled ‘Scrap tourism tax.’ parliament was imploring government to scrap the tourism tax completely based on the findings of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Environment, Water, Tourism and Hospitality. According to the committee the 15% tourism tax paid by tourism is not sustainable in the long run. The tourism taxes will resulting more tax evasion, low tourist arrivals volumes and retrenchments to cut costs. They also found that the tourism tax has a direct effect on the overal price of the tourism product raising it to about 35% more expensive as compared to some competing regional markets. Reduction or complete removal of tourism tax is believed to improve destination competitiveness and employment levels. A study to review this particular innovative legislature done in Ireland 2013 after taxes had been reduced from 13.5% to 9% discovered the perceived benefits to be true along with other non-anticipated ones which include price reductions of tourism services, renewed growth in tourists numbers and revenues and increased overseas participation by tourists based on a value for money preconception thanks to tax reduction (OECD 2014). Another tax innovation that can be introduced in Zimbabwe to reduce negative impacts of tourism on the environment is eco-taxes which add a tax burden to operations that contribute to impacting the environment negatively. For example in New Zealand the Emmissions Trading Scheme which exerts extra taxative pressure on energy and fuel suppliers which increases prices to tourism players thereby contributing to turning to innovative environmentally sustainable practices such as the use of solar power(OECD 2014).
Television and radio marketing are now been considered traditional marketing media for tourism and hospitality players nowadays due to the proliferation of more sophisticated media such as e-marketing, internet and digital forms of marketing. However, they are still a creative way to market tourism and hospitality services to the domestic market. Television provides a better way to market as opposed to radio which does not provide an image to the audience. At the same time television has various alternatives to simple normal marketing, it has the range and scope to include marketing via movies, popular television series by way of setting and environment used for certain scenes. An example is how certain international movies are jointly used to market tourism destinations such as Thailand in the popular Ong Bak movie series. In Zimbabwe, Showman Tours has gone a step further by having their own slot on prime time television on ZBC every Sunday before the eight o’clock news. Showman Tours is a main propagator of domestic travel which is a positive stimulus to the travel and tour spectrum in Zimbabwe. Television marketing is a very powerful tool in marketing tourism destination. Gartner (2008) asserts that the process of psycological image formation whilst watching television is intricately entwined with the destination selection process.
In conclusion, without innovation the hospitality and tourism sector in Zimbabwe would surely die. It is a sector which in theory should be contributing immense sums of revenue to the national fiscus year in year out but in reality it is not perfoming as well as it should be. Despite garnering 10% contribution to the Gross Domestic Product and close to a billion dollars in revenue (WTTC 2014) benchmarked to a target of 15% and five billion united states dollars respectively by 2015 set by the government, the tourism sector is perfoming as of yet at optimum perfomance. Despite existing brilliant and not so brilliant innovations that are been utilised, there is still a huge gap to where the sector should be and where it is currently. Innovation can be used to rectify this anomaly only and if when all relevant stakeholders put their weight behind innovation as the gate way to success to achieve an overall positive ideal.

REFERENCES
‘Zim-Zambia univisa system hailed.’ 26 May 2015, available www.zbc.co.zw retrieved 30 August 2015.
Gartner, W.C, 18 October 2008, Image formation process, Journal of travel and tourism marketing, volume 2, issue 2-3.
Kim, C.K and Mauborgne, R, 2005, Blue ocean strategy: how to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant, Harvard Business School Press, Massachusettes, United States of America.
Kunambura, A 27 August 2015, Zimbabwe: ‘Scrap tourism tax.’ Financial gazette, Harare Zimbabwe
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Zengeni, N and Zengeni, D.M.F, 2012, “The impact of current visa regime policy and sustainability, volume 1 issue 3, pages 1008-1025.