Contribution of travel and tourism to GDP in Zimbabwe 2019-2021

Travel and tourism contributed approximately four percent to Zimbabwe's GDP in 2021. Compared to 2020, the contribution of tourism to the economy of Zimbabwe experienced a slight increase. This was due to the closure of the travel sector for five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Looking at the domestic and international spending in the travel sector, the total expenditure decreased from nearly one billion U.S. dollars in 2019 to 880 million U.S. dollars in 2021.

Employment in the tourism industry

A total shutdown of the tourism sector for nearly half a year had a severe impact on the employment within the industry and led to the loss of many jobs. In 2020, there were approximately 147 thousand jobs in the travel and tourism sector of Zimbabwe, which is a decrease of about 18 percent compared to 2019. However, despite this significant decline, the industry held roughly 2.5 percent of the total employment in the country.

Most tourists came from Africa

 The most common origin of tourists that visited Zimbabwe in 2021 came from the African continent. 16 percent of the visitors came from Malawi , whereas Namibia and Zambia had a share of 15 percent of the total international tourists each. Mozambique and the United States completed the ranking with 12 percent and five percent, respectively.