A Natural Wonder
The Zambezi River
The Victoria Falls
Formation of the Victoria Falls
People of the Victoria Falls
Enter the Ndebele
Discovery of the Victoria Falls
In Livingstone's Footsteps
Development of the Railway
To the Banks of the Zambezi
Development of the Falls
To The Congo
Development of Tourism
Development of Victoria Falls Town
Recent History
Further Information
Collectables

    
Discover the Victoria Falls with the Zambezi Book Company

To The Victoria Falls

Development of the Victoria Falls

Recent History



The following text is adapted from 'Footsteps Through Time - A History of Travel and Tourism to the Victoria Falls', researched and written by Peter Roberts and published in 2017. Please visit the Zambezi Book Company website for more information.



Regeneration and Renewal

Zimbabwe recorded a small but steady increase in visitor arrivals during 2014, with year end totals of 1,880,028, despite the equatorial ebola epidemic casting a shadow over travel to the continent. Tourism arrivals dropped further to a low of 906,198 while overseas visitors increased slightly to 279,53 over the year.

Peak-season tourism arrivals at the Falls returned to the levels of the late 1990s, with the main hotels at Victoria Falls reporting occupancy rates of 77 percent in August 2014, up from 62 percent in the same month in 2013. Annual average room occupancy, however, fell slightly to 49 percent in 2014, with August and September the busiest months, recording occupancy levels of 80 and 66 percent, and January and February as the lowest, with 33 and 32 percent occupancy (Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, 2015).

The south bank recorded a total of 241,351 visitors to the Rainforest in 2014, including 173,841 international visitors (Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, 2015). Zambia recorded 153,790 visitors to the north bank, including 45,303 internationals, and agreeing the combined total of 353,025 visitors presented to U.N.E.S.C,O. in 2014 (Joint Site Management Committee, 2016).

The tourism town of Victoria Falls was also experiencing regeneration, with several hotels investing in significant refurbishments and expansions. A long neglected corner, in the centre of town, the old Wimpy restaurant was redeveloped as the Shearwater Café, opened in August 2014.

Mr Kennedy of Africa Albida Tourism reported a record month for their flagship property, the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, achieving the highest occupancy figures since it opened in 1994.

“This is a sure sign that Zimbabwe tourism, and the destination are rapidly turning a corner, after three years of positive growth,” Mr Kennedy reported (Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs, Sept 2014).

In mid-2014 Livingstone Airport was renamed the Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula International Airport in celebration of fifty years of independence.

Safari Lodge Celebrates Twenty Years

Victoria Falls Safari Lodge celebrated twenty years of operation with a significant $1 million refurbishment, including an upgrade of all 72 rooms, completed in July 2014. The Africa Albida Tourism complex now included the six luxury Victoria Falls Safari Suites (converted from six of the existing Lokuthula Lodge units and opened in December 2013), the exclusive 20-room Victoria Falls Safari Club (development at a cost of $2.7 million and opened in August 2012), the as well as the original Victoria Falls Safari Lodge and Lokuthula Lodges.

Tram Tragedy

The Victoria Falls Steam Train Company launched a new tourism service at the Falls in 2012 with the introduction of the Victoria Falls Tram, a specially commissioned replica historical rail tram, which took clients on short runs from the train station and Falls Hotel down to the Victoria Falls Bridge. In July 2014 the tram was involved in a tragic, and fatal, accident, when a heavy goods train collided with the small tram as it was passing through the station, with a full compliment of 32 passengers, shunting it some distance and severely injuring several tourists, one of who subsequently died (Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs, July 2014).

Gorge Lookout

In December 2014 Wild Horizons opened the new Lookout Café, part of a redevelopment of their gorge activity centre, perched overlooking the second and third gorges below the Falls. The development included a rebuild and expansion of the existing thatched structure, landscaped terraced gardens and the clearance of a large area of natural bush for customer car parking.

The gorge activity centre was originally developed in 2001 with the construction of a small thatched building and installation of high-wire infrastructure across the gorges, offering a bungee swing, zip-line and abseiling activities. The centre expanded its activities with the introduction of zip-line ‘canopy tour’ in the bend of the second and third gorges in mid 2013.

Commercial Asset

Pressure to develop new commercial tourism projects and products continued to drive the development of the local Falls environment, in many cases resulting in proposals inappropriate and unsuitable to its protected National Park status and U.N.E.S.C.O. World Heritage listing. Proposals rejected under U.N.E.S.C.O. guidelines during the period included bids to operate tethered observation balloons and an amphibious vehicle from the north bank. The south side has also seen attempts to develop a cable car facility into the gorge among other projects, including a recent proposal to reopen tours to Cataract Island, the last remaining fragment of the Rainforest untouched by modern tourism pressures (Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs, Dec 2016).

In late 2014 Zimbabwe Tourism Authority Chief Executive Officer, Karikoga Kaseke controversially proposed that Zimbabwe and Zambia should even forego the U.N.E.S.C.O. listing of the Falls and instead maximise commercial revenues.

“We don’t need the Falls to remain a natural world heritage site as stipulated by United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (U.N.E.S.C.O.). We need to go the Niagara Falls way and make money for our people and our economies. We can gain a lot of benefits if we commercialise it... We need to electrify Victoria Falls and start running it on 24 hours basis instead of closing the premises in the night.” (Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs, Nov 2014)

Mr Kaseke said Niagara Falls attracted $30 billion annually, compared to less than $500,000 at the Victoria Falls for Zimbabwe and Zambia. Mr Kaseke expanded that Victoria Falls had potential to raise more revenue from tourists if the Falls Rainforest had electric lighting to enable night-time visits, steady water flows, restaurants, accommodation facilities and other modern amenities like at Niagara.

Chief Mukuni countered that tourists around the world travelled to the Falls to see them in their natural form, undeveloped and untouched by commercial development.

“In my opinion, we should keep the Falls as natural as possible and not commercialise it.” (Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs, Nov 2014)

Expanding Horizons

Visitor arrivals to Zimbabwe in 2015 increased to year-end totals of 2,056,588, including 1,062,605 tourism arrivals and 295,898 overseas visitors (Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, 2016).

Room occupancy at the Falls was reported to have increased slightly to 52 percent (Anchor Environmental Consultants, 2019). The ten main accommodation providers on the south bank of the Falls, however, recorded a drop of two percent against 2014 and entry numbers to the Rainforest reportedly declined 2.6 percent (Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs, February 2016). Unfavourable government taxation policies, including a new 15 percent tax on hotel accommodation for foreign tourists, imposed at short notice at the beginning of the year, negatively affected predictions of higher levels of growth.

Zimbabwe initially recorded a total of 260,575 visitors to the Rainforest over the year (Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, 2016). The Zambian side of the Falls recorded 141,929 visitors, with international visitors dropping to a low of 29,575. The figures for the south bank again appear to have been subsequently revised down to a total of 233,474 visitors, including 173,561 international tourists (Anchor Environmental Consultants, 2019), and indicating a combined total of 375,403 visitors to the Falls over the year. Figures presented to U.N.E.S.C.O reported a significantly higher combined total of 544,104 visitors (Joint Site Management Committee, 2016).

Ilala Lodge began a significant extension in November 2014 with the development of a new three-storey wing (raising the profile of the previously two-storey building), adding an additional 20 deluxe rooms and two executive suites, and expanding the hotel to a total of 56 rooms. The new wing opened in October 2015.

The Zambezi Sun Hotel on the north bank of the Falls was relaunched under new management in 2015 as the Avani Victoria Falls Resort.


Millions and Billions

Zimbabwe recorded 2,167,686 tourist arrivals by over 2016, including 1,080,657 tourist arrivals and 318,751 overseas visitors (Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, 2017).

In 2017 Africa Albida Tourism, in association with the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, produced a detailed tourism review of the Falls region. The review presented a detailed breakdown of accommodation on both sides of the river, indicating that whilst Victoria Falls town had less tourism accommodation properties than Livingstone (53 against 87) but a higher total number of rooms (1,832 against 1,705) and beds (4,423 against 3,779). Accommodation on the south bank included the ten main hotels, offering 1,233 rooms and 2,659 beds, 11 safari camps/lodges offering 131 rooms and 294 beds, 23 guest houses and bed and breakfast providers with 23 rooms and 348 beds, 4 self-catering operations offering 65 rooms and 230 beds, and five backpackers with 65 rooms and 498 beds.

Occupancies were marginally over 50% for the region (Victoria Falls recorded room occupancy of 49% over 2016). A total of 36 boats with capacity for 1,513 passengers operated from the south bank, with only seven boats catering for up to 600 passengers on the north bank. Eight helicopters were now operating from the south bank, with a passenger capacity of 34, and five on the north bank, seating up to 22 passengers (Africa Albida Tourism, 2017).

Tourism industry figures initially recorded a total of 265,388 visitors to the Rainforest in 2016 (Africa Albida Tourism, 2017). Again these figures appear to have been subsequently amended to 262,612 visitors, including 192,307 international tourists (Anchor Environmental Consultants, 2019). Zambia recorded a total of 167,710 visitors to the north bank, including 51,450 international visitors and indicating a combined total of 430,322 visitors, against a figure of 417,372 visitors reported to U.N.E.S.C.O. (Joint Site Management Committee, 2018).

In June 2016 the Zimbabwe Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Walter Mzembi, was reported in the national press describing Victoria Falls as a potential $4.8 billion ‘cash-cow,’ quoting an average overseas tourist spend of $1,200 and predicting an incredible four million annual visitors to both sides of the river (Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs, June 2016).

In mid-2016 Victoria Falls Municipality announced plans to develop a Civic Centre, shopping mall, convention centre, five-star hotel and theme park in the centre of Victoria Falls, redeveloping the substantial plots currently home to the Falls Rest Camp and Municipality offices. In September 2016 it was reported that a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed with a South African developer and a local construction company to develop plans for the multi-million dollar complex. The development threatens a significant area of green space within the town, with extensive grounds and many fine tree specimens under threat of being ripped up and replaced with concrete buildings and parking lots (Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs, September 2016).

Green Shoots

Tourism operators in the Falls have in recent years increasingly adopted positive ‘eco-tourism’ principles, aiming to minimise environmental impacts and supporting conservation and community initiatives in the local area. From an emphasis on the ‘green building’ of new developments, minimising environmental impacts across all levels of the construction process, to the ‘greening’ of everyday operations, many tourism operators and accommodation providers are recognising they need to take active steps to minimise the impacts of their operations on the environment.

The Victoria Falls Green Fund, launched in February 2010 by Environment Africa, aims to encourage development of the Falls as a premier ‘green destination’ for tourism. Supported by contributions from local tourism operators the funds raised, including a $1 per bed-night contribution from participating hotels, are invested in local conservation and community based projects that promote sustainable development in an environmentally friendly manner.

In early 2016 several leading accommodation providers partnered with Green-Tourism.com in a trial project to encourage industry adoption of sustainable eco-tourism management practices. Cresta Sprayview, Pioneers Camp, The Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls Safari Lodge and Wild Horizons Elephant Camp are all working towards green tourism accreditation under the pioneering scheme.

Explorers Village

The Shearwater Explorers Village opened in late 2016, a new $1.2 million development on the old tethered balloon site and providing camping for over 100 and 32 air-conditioned bedrooms, with plans to expand to 64 beds by the middle of 2017. Aimed at overland groups and independent travellers, the central complex includes restaurant, bar, pool and shop (Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs, April 2017).

Collective Responsibility

Management of the town’s waste has long been problematic, with a large open landfill site on the outskirts of town the ultimate destination for the estimated 3,300 tonnes of rubbish generated annually by local residents, tourists and supporting industries. Meadows, writing in 2000, introduces the town of Victoria Falls from the perspective of many tourists - via the main road from the airport into town:

“You get a hint, these days, of what the tourist town of Victoria Falls has to peddle, when you come down that long hill towards the railway bridge and the Maswe River. Off to your right, at about the two o’clock position, light bounces sullenly off water, the town’s sewerage ponds. Smoke drifts, like so many funeral pyres, from the council’s main rubbish dump, and if a person needs any further confirmation of their presence, it will come a minute or two later, as you are winding up the hill, the road curving to the right, just about where the ‘Welcome to Victoria Falls’ billboard hails you; when the whiff of purulence gets gin-trapped in the hairs of your nostrils. Should you have the inclination to follow the red Kalahari-sand track off to the town dump you will be confronted by a sad, rather uncanny sight. For there, in a Darwinesque tableau, you will see baboons of all sizes amingle together with the destitute people of the tourist town, grubbing side by side amidst the foetid detritus of the dump.” (Meadows, 2000)

The ingestion of plastic bags was linked to the death of at least eight elephants habituated to feeding on waste food found at the dump in early 2016, resulting in calls for the site to be properly fenced. A fundraising campaign was launched by concerned residents and local conservation organisations, and with the support of an online crowd funding campaign and input from the tourism sector, an electric fence was installed around the site at the end of 2016 (Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs, March 2016).

Increasing volumes of rubbish, from cans, bottles, fast-food wrappers and plastic bags to household and even business and industrial waste are, however, a regular feature in the open bush surrounding the town, promoting community groups and tourism operators to organise regular voluntary litter clearing collections.

Univisa Returns

Tourists and residents on either side of the Falls have to go through tedious border formalities, with associated visa restrictions and vehicle charges, to visit the other side of the river. The year-long trial introduction of a trial tourism ‘Univisa’ in December 2014, allowing unrestricted travel on both sides of the river between Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, was welcomed as a success by tourists and industry. After a lapsed period following the trial the Univisa was finally re-introduced in late 2016 (Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs, July 2016). A resulting trend has been the growth of day trippers visiting the Falls in Zimbabwe from neighbouring countries of Botswana and Zambia.

Next page: New Highs

Further Reading

Roberts, P. (2021) Footsteps Through Time - A History of Travel and Tourism to the Victoria Falls. Zambezi Book Company.

Footsteps Through Time - A History of Travel and Tourism to the Victoria Falls


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Discover the Victoria Falls with the Zambezi Book Company

'To The Victoria Falls' aims to bring you the wonder of the Victoria Falls through a look at its natural and human history.

This website has been developed using information researched from a wide variety of sources, including books, magazines and websites etc too numerous to mention or credit individually, although many key references are identified on our References page. Many of the images contained in this website have been sourced from old photographic postcards and publications and no infringement of copyright is intended. We warmly welcome any donations of photographs or information to this website.

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