eBusiness Weekly
Enacy Mapakame
For a long time, there has been a misconception that holidaying at exclusive resorts is a preserve for the few elite class while for the rest, a holiday entails travelling to rural areas.
The culture of saving and planning for a holiday with friends and family is still to be inculcated in many a people.
However, recently, there has been a rise in travel companies promoting savings for holidays both at local and international tourist destinations as they tap into the industry that has been identified as one of Zimbabwe’s low hanging fruits.
These companies are looking forward to make travel and holidaying a priority and need for every Zimbabwean in the same manner one needs funeral cover or medical aid.
For Four Faces, the concept of holiday clubs was created not only to boost domestic tourism but also to cater for every market to enjoy holiday from the different holiday products in different destinations at affordable rates.
A holiday club is a specifically designed package, which allows members to save towards a holiday through affordable monthly subscriptions on a prepaid contract basis.
The travel and tourism firm caters for students, church events, camping, corporates and individuals providing an opportunity to explore the beauty of what Zimbabwe as a tourist destination has to offer while looking at other regional and international destinations.
Four Faces managing director Evans Chadyiwa, says there is a need for a mindset change towards holidaying and with holiday clubs membership, one can save for a holiday for specific geographic location.
Already, with over 1700 members subscribed to the holiday clubs, the budding small to medium enterprise firm is targeting to grow into a $3 million dollar revenue company within the next three to five years.
Its membership is anticipated to jump to over 400 000 during the same period as more Zimbabweans are anticipated to embrace the programme.
“Since we started this, the uptake has been good and we want to grow our market share within the next five years with membership jumping to nearly half a million.
“So far we have taken people to almost every part of the world except for Australia and what we want to achieve is that everyone should go on holiday at least once every year, and we help with that planning to make it easy,” he said.
With Four Faces – a 100 percent indigenous company – club members pay instalments for their club membership which ranges from $5 to $100 depending with the club one chooses.
The instalments or premiums enable members to enjoy day trips at local tourist destinations within 50 kilometres from one’s area, while the premiums increase with the longer the distance one has to travel for a holiday.
For holiday club members, their monthly premiums are like shooting two birds with one stone.
“What makes us unique is that the premium you pay for your holiday automatically goes towards your medical or funeral cover. If one gets ill before the trip, that money goes towards hospital cash-back or funeral cash-back.
“The idea is, holiday is also important and you should prioritise it in the same manner you prioritise funeral and medical cover, you should live life now,” said Chadyiwa.
