Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) Limited revenue for the first quarter ended March 31, 2021 dropped to ZW$198 million from $368 million recorded over the same period last year due to disruptions by a month and a half long national lockdown introduced in January, the company has said.
The first quarter of the year closed at hotel occupancies of 12 percent, as compared to 33 percent levels last year during the same period.
“This performance is attributed to the increased business activity in the month of March as there was no significant business activity in the first two months of 2021,” said RTG.
Despite the drop in hotel occupancy, the company is however noted, “activities in city hotels have significantly increased mainly driven by conferencing. The resort hotels remain affected by the impact of COVID 19 on world travel,”
According to the UNWTO 2020 report, Africa has been the most affected in terms of international tourism because it is a long haul destination.
The tour operations arm Heritage Expeditions Africa activities were also affected by the lockdown.
“We anticipate the volumes to grow in line with increasing domestic business activities,” said RTG.
The Group’s mobile and web application-the Gateway Stream, which was activated in May 2020 has gained momentum, becoming a source of replacement business, as well as a driver for revenue growth.
“The growth trajectory on Gateway Stream is being led by groceries, hardware and accommodation, while food and drink (Gateway Eats), Events and Insurance channels have started recording business activities and are showing high potential going into the future,” the company said.
The Group expects to see the full activation of all the twelve Gateway Stream revenue channels in the short to medium term.
