• Harare has 2,593 rooms under construction, with another 4,402 at financing, tender and greenfield stages.
• First-quarter 2026 tourist arrivals rose 11% to 384,561 and receipts increased 14% to US$251 million.
• Regional peers show that hotel investment produces stronger economics when accommodation growth is matched by conferences, airlift and sustained room demand.

Harare - Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has disclosed 6,995 additional hotel rooms at different stages of development in Harare, alongside investment opportunities within the 1,200-hectare Masuwe Special Economic Zone in Victoria Falls, expanding Zimbabwe’s accommodation, conferencing and destination infrastructure programme ahead of major international events.

Of the Harare pipeline, 2,593 rooms are already under construction, 2,402 are at tender or financial-close stage and another 2,000 remain in the greenfield project pipeline. Completion of all three categories would lift the capital’s accommodation inventory from approximately 11,854 rooms to 18,849, leaving it about 1,151 rooms below the estimated 20,000-room requirement associated with hosting events on the scale of the Intra-African Trade Fair.

The pipeline has grown rapidly from the accommodation deficit identified earlier this year. In March, the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency was marketing an opportunity for investors to develop as many as 10,000 hotel rooms and associated conferencing facilities in Harare, following Zimbabwe’s selection to host the permanent headquarters of the Intra-African Trade Fair Company. The country is scheduled to host the full-scale IATF in Harare in 2029, with subsequent editions running in Zimbabwe through 2033. 

The financing requirement has since moved closer to the hospitality industry. In July, the Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe convened banks and operators around the funding gap, with banks discussing longer-term funding, credit guarantees, political-risk insurance and export-credit structures for viable tourism projects. The wider tourism infrastructure requirement includes hotel expansion, refurbishment, conference facilities, transport, digital infrastructure and destination improvements. 

Ncube has now placed the value of Zimbabwe’s hotel infrastructure pipeline at about US$500 million, covering developments expected through 2030 and involving pension funds, institutional investors, local businesses and international hotel groups. The entry of institutional capital gives the programme a stronger financing base, although each project still carries its own land, funding, construction and operating requirements before it becomes part of usable room stock. 

The demand base has also been expanding. Zimbabwe recorded 384,561 international tourist arrivals during the first quarter of 2026, up 11%, and tourism receipts increased 14% to US$251 million from US$221 million in the comparable period. Recorded tourism investment reached US$67.8 million from US$12.6 million, although ZTA attributed part of that rise to a registration campaign that brought previously unregistered facilities into the formal system. 

Hotel utilisation presents a more demanding part of the investment case. National occupancy averaged 38% during the first quarter, and Harare recorded 45%, down from 48% a year earlier. A 6,995-room addition would expand the capital’s current stock by approximately 59%, meaning the operating economics of the new hotels require a considerably larger pool of room nights across conferences, corporate travel, government activity, leisure and international business. 

IATF provides a substantial demand event around which part of that capacity is being planned. Preparations also include a proposed 15,000-seat convention centre at Robert Mugabe Square and upgrades to exhibition, transport and related infrastructure. The hosting programme therefore creates activity across several years, starting with construction and extending into accommodation, catering, logistics, professional services and conference operations once the facilities enter service. 

The commercial challenge lies in converting peak-event requirements into a recurring events market. A hotel developed for a major continental gathering remains an operating asset for decades, carrying payroll, utilities, maintenance, refurbishment and financing costs throughout its life. Harare’s 45% first-quarter occupancy consequently places conference acquisition, business travel and annual event programming directly into the investment mathematics of the room expansion.

Regional markets show how that relationship can work when recurring demand becomes established. Kenya received 2.55 million international visitors in 2025, with business travellers accounting for about 643,100 arrivals. The country hosted 12,671 domestic conferences and 998 international conferences, and hotel bed nights increased 12.6% to 11.56 million. Nairobi’s high-end segment alone recorded almost 1.97 million occupied bed nights during the year. 

Conference demand continues to provide Nairobi hotels with forward visibility. A Central Bank of Kenya survey released in August showed average confirmed hotel bookings for August to November 2026 at 56.25%, compared with 49.5% in the equivalent period a year earlier. The city has developed a recurring calendar of corporate travel, international meetings and regional business activity that feeds accommodation demand outside a single flagship event. 

Kigali offers an even more concentrated MICE example. The Radisson Blu Hotel and Kigali Convention Centre reported occupancy of around 60% in 2025, with MICE delegates accounting for 51% of hotel occupancy and conference-related travellers forming close to three-quarters of guests when corporate conference traffic is included. The property generated revenue in the US$30 million to US$40 million range during the year despite cancellations of several major events. 

Cape Town provides a larger leisure-and-business benchmark. Its hotels averaged 61.7% occupancy in 2025, with February reaching 81.5%. The city received 1.44 million foreign overnight visitors, generated R19 billion in foreign visitor spending, sold 13.6 million foreign bed nights and handled 11.1 million two-way airport passengers. Its accommodation economics are supported by the combination of leisure demand, international air access, conferencing and domestic travel. 

Those peer markets place Harare’s current position in useful context. Zimbabwe has secured a major continental event and is assembling room capacity around it, and the city’s occupancy remains below the levels achieved by established regional MICE destinations. The investment programme therefore creates a second requirement alongside construction: a sustained programme capable of filling the additional rooms after the initial event-driven demand has passed.

Victoria Falls enters the investment cycle from a different operating base. The north-western region handled more than 1.22 million travellers in 2025, up from about 1.14 million in 2024, giving the destination an established flow of international and regional visitors. Road conditions and domestic accessibility have remained constraints for parts of the market, with operators reporting weaker local traffic during periods when road travel became difficult. 

The Masuwe Special Economic Zone expands the available tourism footprint around that demand base. Cabinet approved a US$66.9 million public-private partnership involving the Mosi-oa-Tunya Development Company and JR Goddard for bulk infrastructure across a 272-hectare tourism park within the broader 1,200-hectare zone. Roads, water, sewerage, electricity and stormwater systems form part of the development programme. 

That infrastructure changes the economics facing subsequent investors because individual hotel, leisure and commercial projects can enter serviced land with core utilities already being developed. Masuwe can therefore accommodate investment across hotels, conferencing, recreation and associated commercial uses within a common precinct, expanding Victoria Falls beyond its established accommodation core.

Zimbabwe has already attracted more than US$363 million in tourism investment across 2023 and 2024, with Victoria Falls and Hwange among the areas receiving significant interest. The new US$500 million hotel pipeline extends that investment cycle into 2030 and places a larger amount of private and institutional capital behind the sector’s expansion. 

The numbers now provide clear points against which that capital can be audited. Harare has 2,593 rooms physically under construction, leaving 4,402 rooms requiring further progress through financing, tendering and development. Existing occupancy sits at 45%, and the city is preparing for a major events programme beginning in 2029. Victoria Falls has an established visitor base and is adding serviced tourism land through Masuwe.

Financial closures, completed rooms, conference bookings, air passenger volumes, occupancy, average room rates and revenue per available room can therefore show how the expansion performs as it moves from project pipeline into operating assets. Masuwe adds another set of measures through infrastructure completion, land uptake and private investment committed within the precinct.

Zimbabwe has secured the event rights and assembled a sizeable hospitality pipeline. The next three years provide a measurable period in which financing, construction and destination demand can be assessed against one another. Regional experience from Nairobi, Kigali and Cape Town shows that durable hotel economics are built around recurring conferences, air connectivity and visitor spending across the calendar, giving Zimbabwe clear operating benchmarks as its own accommodation stock expands.

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