Victoria Falls hotel fury

 The Times (UK), December 02, 2006

Richard Siddle

A plan to build a huge resort in a tiny Unesco national park is causing widespread anger.

BRITISH tourists are being urged to boycott a South African hotel chain over plans to build a multimillion-pound resort in a protected area near the Victoria Falls.

Legacy Resorts & Hotels International, the luxury African hotel chain, was handed a contract by the Zambian Government to build what will be a £136 million, 450-room hotel complex and golf course on Unesco-protected land in the Mosi-O-Tunya National Park, 6km from the falls.

Unesco’s World Heritage Committee has already expressed its concerns to the Zambian authorities over what it sees as the level of “uncontrolled, urban development, pollution and unplanned tourism development” in the protected park.

British and African tour operators are petitioning fellow companies to boycott the hotel chain if the deal goes ahead.

A final decision based on the developers’ environmental impact assessment is expected by December 15.

UK African specialist travel companies, including Tribes, Expert Africa, Rainbow Tours, Okavango Tours & Safaris, Aardvark Safaris, Dragoman and Wildlife Worldwide, have signed up to the boycott.

“The travel industry must get together to protest,” said Amanda Marks, managing director of Tribes. “If we do not, it will set a dangerous precedent in Africa.”

Roger Diski, managing director of Rainbow Tours, said: “It would be a disaster if it goes ahead. If you put that number of people into that kind of resort in that area the pressure on water and services would just be too much.”

John Spence, director, of Aardvark Safaris, said: “The national park is the size of a postage stamp. It is the only place in Zambia where you can see rhino, so to build a huge hotel there seems utter madness. It is important we bombard the Zambian Government and let it be known how strongly we feel about this.”

British operators recognise the economic impact a hotel of this size could have in terms of jobs, but are urging Legacy to look at alternative sites outside the protected national park.

“We are not against development per se. It is just we do not want the Victoria Falls area to be spoilt,” Diski said.

“We are not saying, don’t build at all, just could it be built successfully outside the protected area. If it can then it makes a nonsense of this proposal,” said Dick Sisman, the Association of Independent Tour Operators’ responsible tourism adviser and a member of the World Commission for Protected Areas.

A number of tour operators in Africa are also refusing to send clients to Legacy hotels’ other 21 African properties, according to Andrew Anderson, director of operations at travel firm African Insight. “We cannot support the principles of responsible tourism and still be seen to be doing business with the Legacy Group,” he said.

Legacy says that it is working with the Zambia Wildlife Authority and Zambia’s National Heritage Conservation Commission (NHCC) on a project that will create 3,000 jobs and bring in 300,000 extra tourists.

Legacy refused to comment directly and instead referred The Times to an NHCC statement that the development will comply with “both national and international environmental guidelines for such an ecological and culturally sensitive site”.

Source:  Victoria Falls hotel fury (The Tiimes, 02/12/06)