LISTED hotel business operator Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) has ventured into the tour operation business in a bid to get more out of the tourism value chain.
With most Zimbabwean companies struggling to get funds for capitalisation, the timely diversification by RTG is expected to widen the group’s horizon by opening more revenue channels.
Speaking recently the company’s group chief executive officer Tendai Madziwanyika said they have identified gaps in the tour operation business and have set out to take advantage of it through forming two tour operation companies Heritage Expeditions Africa and Exotic Travel International.
“Well we have now set up two tour operation arms one in Zimbabwe that we call Heritage Expeditions Africa, we see a gap in the Zimbabwe market of somebody who can package various destinations around the country and we have already imported some buses, about 6 of them and we want to be able to create packages to go to Nyanga, go to Masvingo and around the country.
“We see a bigger opportunity there and so that is one area. Again through Heritage a person can tailor-make their own package and go and pay online without getting someone to package for them so it’s really operating at cutting edge technology.
“On the other hand we are determined that we will not be defined by the Zimbabwean borders we have to go beyond we have the ability through technology to do so and we have actually setup Exotic Travel International which is a tour operator based out of the United States of America that we have set up as a foreign company 100 percent by RTG,” he said.
Madziwanyika added that Exotic Travel International which was launched in June (2018) will be selling the world to Americans.
From June last year when the company started operations, Madziwanyika said “we have net sales of over US$500 000 already of which US$67 000 has been banked.
“We think this is the challenge that the shareholder has given us to grow their value and not to be limited by the borders of Zimbabwe and technology is the answer.
“It’s exciting today to note that as RTG we have a book that says we have Americans going to Lebanon, Americans going to Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil and that is what we think will be part of our growth into the future. We are trying to get more out of the value chain of tourism and travel,” he said.
According to the Madziwanyika, they foresee an RTG that is no just focused on rooms but a more redefined company that will be taking advantage of opportunities in the tourism sector to grow revenue streams.
