Pricing in Zimbabwe
Quoted from The Lonely Planet Guide:
"Although hotels, national parks and tour operators employ a two-tier (or three-tier)
pricing system, in which foreigners pay considerably more for goods and services than
Zimbabwe residents, Zimbabwe is still not expensive unless they're using
international-class hotels, safari lodges, fine restaurants and/or package safaris."
We did it all, and spent a fortune! In between we tried to save some money, which seemed a bit weird - even to us. Obviously we did not save much money, by dropping a taxi for instance. Renting bikes were probably as expensive as hiring a car with a driver all day. Never the less we felt more comfortable that way, it was like getting the feet back on the ground from time to time.
The discriminating price system (I think it could be four-tier) means cheapest price to black Africans, reasonable (?) to white domestic residents, more expensive to other white residents in Africa, and damn expensive for Europeans. You may think it is fair enough, everybody pays according to ability. It seems not to be so, according to The Lonely Planet, the extra profit gained is soaked directly out of the country, and never benefits local employees. There is no reason to doubt it, those who run these pricing systems are normally part of international companies.
BCE 04.12.98