By Byron Mutingwende
Although the release was delayed by three months to 29 September 2017 because of a transaction to restructure its balance sheet, which was burdened by an expensive debt, hospitality giant Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) has posted impressive half-year financial results.
Commenting on the financials during the ongoing Sanganai/Hlanganani Tourism Expo in Bulawayo on Friday, Tendai Madziwanyika the Chief Executive of RTG urged shareholders to consider the instruments being put before them by management to eliminate the legacy debt.
“The debt has been weighing the company down in capital repayment and interest servicing. We are confident of exponential performance after the restructuring. In the meantime, we released a pleasing set of results that showed that the company is now stable in its cost structures whilst reducing our half year loss from $2, 9 million in June 2016 to $290 000 in June 2017,” Madziwanyika said.
The technocrat expressed happiness for the fact that RTG’s foreign business was growing aggressively. The exports increased by overall 9% in the first half year while online business grew by 46%.
Guests at Rainbow Bulawayo branch who spoke to this writer were impressed by the improvement of services at the branch. Madziwanyika said that was because of the team which believed in its brand and see a bright future in the company.
“The Bulawayo Rainbow branch team, headed by General Manager Innocent Kufa, now believe that it is possible to give our customers refreshing experiences consistently and that is exactly what they are doing with passion and commitment. We have seen this commitment and service delivery throughout the entire hotel portfolio. Our customers can now truly look forward to refreshing hotels, refreshing smiles from our staff and refreshing in-room and dining experiences.”
He paid tribute to support from throughout the tourism industry and the growing unity among the sector players, which is an important ingredient in creating a winning Team Zimbabwe.
Tourism minister, Walter Mzembi was praised for his vision and leadership of the hotel industry and so was Karikoga Kaseke, the Chief Executive of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority for jointly putting on the Sanganai/Hlanganani Tourism Expo. Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa was in Bulawayo to witness for himself the potential of tourism as a premium foreign currency generating industry and to officially open the tourism expo.