(Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 27th Sept 2025, updated 8th October 2025)
Conservation
campaign group, Keep Victoria Falls Wild, has announced it is considering
launching a call for an international tourism boycott of the Zimbabwean side of
the Victoria Falls in response to increasing tourism development pressures
which continue to threaten the future viability of the UNESCO World Heritage
Site (WHS) which it shares with its northern neighbour, Zambia.
In
a social media post on their Facebook page, posted to coincide with World
Tourism Day, 27th September 2025, the group highlighted the controversial
Baines Restaurant development, located a short distance above the Falls and constructed within the WHS 'Highly Ecologically Sensitive Zone' (HSEZ) which
prevents all new tourism development.
"A legal
challenge against the development, launched in mid-2022 when construction first
started at the site, has still yet to be heard by the courts, resulting in a
second legal case, raised at the beginning of this year in an attempt to
conclude this matter. Despite all the evidence, and negative publicity, the
restaurant still remains open, with the owners of the operation, Scanner
Investments (trading as Victoria Falls
Investments) still claiming it is located in a permitted development zone and
even attempting to sue a local resident for over US$2 million in damages in an
attempt to silence the truth. All this after the new National Park Management
Plan, published in 2024, presented a map which confirmed the site is located in
the HESZ 'no new development zone.' It speaks volumes, not only of the state of
Zimbabwe's
legal system, but also indicates significant political support and influence
over this development."
In
response to the US$2 million libel claim Keep Victoria Falls Wild published a
special report which categorically showed the development is, and always has
been, located within the UNESCO WHS HESZ (KVFW, June 2025).
The Baines Restaurant, Victoria Falls, constructed
within the World Heritage Site 'no new development zone'
The National Park Management Plan map is also definitive in showing the location as within the WHS HESZ (Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, 2024).
Map showing the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site Management Zones
(adapted from ZPWMA, 2024, click for larger view)
Questioning
why, therefore, the restaurant remains open, the statement continued with a
call for the tourism sector itself to stand up against illegitimate
developments, or face the consequences of further negative publicity as well as
a de-valued tourism product as new developments degrade and fragment the local
environment of the Falls.
"The development
is a stain on Victoria Falls' tourism industry
and will continue to create negative media coverage until it is closed, the
structures removed, and the site returned to nature. Perhaps it's time we
called for an international boycott - not just of this restaurant, but of all
tourism to the Zimbabwean side of the Falls, where a wave of tourism
development proposals threaten conservation areas within the WHS and
surrounding area which have been designated as 'permanently restricted' against
all new development since the 1970s - including the riverside 'tree lodge'
development which is being proposed by House of Chinhara Hospitality
Investments Ltd and which is apparently to be managed by the InterContinental
Hotel Group - or so they think. It's time that Zimbabwe's tourism sector sorted
its act out and stood up against these illegitimate developments, which not
only threaten the natural environment of the Falls, and future of the World
Heritage Site, but will also diminish the tourism value of the Falls and limit
the future viability of the tourism sector."
The riverside 'tree lodge'
development was initially described as a '24 bed semi-permanent tented
tree lodge' when first disclosed to the public in 2020. The proposal has
subsequently grown into a 57-room 5-star luxury lodge, to be developed by House
of Chinhara Hospitality Ltd and managed under InterContinental Hotel
Group's exclusive Six Senses brand.
The
list of recent tourism developments within this section of the Victoria Falls
National Park and WHS HESZ also includes the 'Rock Pool,' a riverside bar
developed and managed by the Park Authority, and the launch of tours to
Cataract Island by Zambezi Crescent, operators of the Victoria Falls River
Lodge, with the recent development of a jetty site a short distance upstream of
the Falls to facilitate tours.
In
addition Victoria Falls City Council have announced the development of the
upstream Victoria Falls Resort, sale of Stand 1815 for a tourism hotel development (on the north-western edge
of the Elephant Hills Golf Course) and revealed plans for the development of two more areas of virgin bush for a tourism development, one on the south-eastern side of the Golf Course and Zambezi Drive/Big Tree area and the other on the road loop down to the Falls rainforest, all located on the boundaries of the WHS and within the
surrounding 500m 'Buffer Zone' which is supposed to limit development. These
latter areas, identified in the 2024 Victoria Falls City Council Master Plan, were previously identified as being 'restricted permanently' from all
new development, with the exception of infrastructure essential to its
management, under the 1975 town development plan (known as the Outline Plan, and identified as Areas 7 & 14 under the 2001 Combination Plan).
Developments threatening the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site
(click for larger view)
Despite
all these ongoing and planned developments, Zimbabwean Authorities chose not to
disclose any new developments to UNESCO in the recent 2024 State of Conservation report for
the site, thus failing in their obligation to inform the World Heritage
Committee of all new developments affecting the WHS (State Parties, 2024). A new report is due to be
submitted at the end of the year in advance of the next conference of the World
Heritage Committee in mid-2026.
The Victoria Falls was designated as a World Heritage Site in December 1989, following the joint submission of the site by Zambia and Zimbabwe, known as the ‘State Parties,’ to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for consideration on the exclusive global list. The World Heritage List is managed under the World Heritage Convention (1972), of which both countries are signatories. As parties to the convention, the two countries are pledged to keep the Victoria Falls/Mosi-oa-Tunya World Heritage Site (VFWHS) ‘intact for future generations.’
A
call for an international tourism boycott of the Zimbabwean side of the Falls,
even if targeted against certain operations and operators, could have
significant impacts on the country's tourism industry which relies heavily on
international visitors to the Falls. Zimbabwe's volatile tourism sector has
historically been highly vulnerable to negative international perceptions and
is still to recover to pre-pandemic levels, despite government ambitions for a
US$5 billion annual tourism economy by 2025. The country recorded 1,613,901
national tourism arrivals in 2024, significantly short of the pre-pandemic high
of 2,579,974 arrivals recorded in 2019. Meanwhile Zambia recorded a record 2,199,820
foreign arrivals over 2024.
Zimbabwe’s tourism sector was
reported to have generated US$1.18 billion to the national economy in 2024,
against US$1.16 billion in 2023 and pre-pandemic highs of US$1.24 billion in
2019 (Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, 2025).
Read more on the Keep Victoria Falls Wild website.
Further Information
Keep Victoria Falls Wild (June 2025) Special Report on the Riverine Fringe. (download)
State Parties (2024) State of Conservation Report. Victoria Falls/Mosi-oa-Tunya World Heritage Site.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (2024) Zambezi/Victoria Falls National Park General Management Plan (2024-2034). April 2024.
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (2025) Tourism Trends and Statistics 2024.
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