Published on : Tuesday, May 29, 2018
However, for nearly two decades, Victoria Falls was a little-visited gem, with the political violence and mismanagement of Robert Mugabe’s regime keeping tourists away from Zimbabwe.
Now, after the end of Mugabe’s regime, the Falls are once again seeing an increase in visitors from Britain, and the locals are hoping for a return to the famed days when it was one of the most important destinations in Africa.
“This place has gone ballistic, shopping malls are going up, every man and his dog wants to be at Vic Falls at the moment… it’s great,” according to Trevor Lane, local wildlife expert and long-time Victoria Falls resident.
Locally known as Mosi-oa-Tunya, meaning “the smoke which thunders” in the local Tonga language, the site has fascinated Western visitors since David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary, came across them more than 160 years ago.
In the 1990s, nearly 200,000 people were checking in at the ticket office to witness the Victoria Falls every year.
By 2008, visitor numbers were down to 25,000, according to statistics from the Zimbabwe Tourist Authority and the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, which runs most wildlife conservancies.
But since the beginning of the year, new hotels and lodges are under construction, and others are expanding, with tourist arrivals higher than before.
The two agencies are saying that they are expecting 300,000 people to visit the Falls this year alone. Income from these tickets is the largest source of income for the Parks Authority, which controls Zimbabwe’s main wildlife conservancies and tries and also controls poaching.
“Without any unexpected impediments there is no reason why Victoria Falls will not become one of the four or five key destinations in Africa in the next four or five years,” says Ross Kennedy, chief executive of Africa Albida Tourism, a large operator at the Falls.
He said that its facilities are already fully booked for August and they have about 90 per cent bookings for the rest of the season. Attractions include a booze cruise along the Zambezi River, canoeing among crocodiles on the calmer stretches, white river rafting on the wilder ones, a 300ft bungee jump off the spectacular Victoria Falls Bridge which links Zimbabwe with Zambia, and a terrifying 1,000ft zip line over the rapids.