- Profit before tax climbed 408% to ZW$2.1 billion
- Revenue grew 309% to ZW$21.4 billion
- EBITDA skyrocketed to ZW$2.5 billion, a 930% increase from the comparative period prior year
Harare- ZSE-listed hospitality service provider, Rainbow Tourism Group’s (RGT) revenue grew 309% to ZW$21.4 billion, up from ZW$5.2 billion in the comparative period prior year as hotel room occupancy more than doubled from 24% to 51% for the nine months ended September 30.
In its Q3 trading update, the Group’s profit also climbed a staggering 408% to ZW$2.1 billion from a loss position of ZW$675 million in Q3 FY’21. EBITDA skyrocketed 930% to ZW$2.5 billion from ZW$243 million in the same period last year. RevPAR or Revenue Per Available Room, a metric used in the hospitality industry to measure hotel performance, mounted 557% from 9069 to 39862 in the period under review.
RTG is positive about the trajectory of policy in the economy as some measures have begun bearing fruit. According to its update, the Group’s operating environment was characterised by significant economic improvements with month-on-month inflation decelerating to 3.5%, owing to policy interventions. “These interventions have led to stability in the foreign exchange market, making pricing of commodities and services easier. The operation environment is projected to remain stable for the remainder of the year”, the statement reads.
Tourism suffered a setback which crippled operations of the country’s major businesses as humanity weathered the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the country’s National Tourism Satelite Account (TSA), Covid-19 induced global travel restrictions cost the country’s tourism sector an estimated US$690 million as the country suffered reduced demand for leisure services due to reduced traffic.
However, the return to normalcy saw the listed concerns’ occupancy levels rising buoyed by increasing economic activity. “City hotels continue to contribute the highest revenues. Increased economic activities have seen city hotels’ occupancies improve to pre-pandemic levels, the statement expressed.
Conferencing remained a major revenue driver for the group and it anticipates that the same trend will continue to year-end.
“Further resort hotels, which have been largely buoyed by local business over the past two years have begun to attract foreign business”. The group expects volumes recorded at the resort hotels to improve against the backdrop of international tourism experiencing a rebound, propelled by international marketing activities.
RTG’s technology subsidiary, Gateway Stream, also enjoyed significant growth in activities across its revenue channels, with the grocery channel remaining the main revenue driver. Heritage Expeditions Africa mirrored that of the hotels business over the past seven months. The two subsidiaries are expected to drive revenue growth, going forward.
Globally, the return to normalcy hasn’t been straightforward. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted global supply chains and has seen prices of commodities skyrocketing, including oil. There are fears that geopolitical tensions may be stoked by a possible invasion of Taiwan by China, which is still hamstrung on a “zero-covid” policy that has somewhat held the world back from “normalcy”. Nonetheless, the group remains optimistic about the continued recovery of the tourism sector supported by increased activities following the containment of the covid-19 pandemic.
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