No Threats of Victoria Falls Deregistration by UNESCO

ZAMBIA Tourism Board (ZTB) has reacted to earlier concerns about the state of the Victoria Falls being threatened for deregistration from UNESCO World Heritage list.

“Victoria Falls are not going to be deregistered from the World Heritage UNESCO list. We have in fact submitted the report on the state of the Victoria Falls to UNESCO. You can best be assured that there is no threat, there is no risk. We are even planning to push for more World Heritage Sites to be enlisted especially in the lower Zambezi which is rich in ecology.” ZTB’s Chief Timothy Mushibwe said

Mushibwe made the assurance while responding to a question from Gill Staden, publisher of the Livingstonian, a weekly publication. Gill Staden wanted to know the state of the Victoria Falls which was under threat of deregistration by UNESCO.

Mushibwe guaranteed tourists and the Zambia tour operators that the Victoria Falls was not under any threat of deregistration from the World Heritage list by UNESCO.

The deregistration concerns come following the continued attacks on tourists in Livingstone through muggings along the Mosi-oa-Tunya Road near the Falls.

Zimba-Livingstone road project for completion

Mushibwe has also assured the tourism players that government has stepped up efforts in ensuring that the Zimba-Livingstone road project is completed.

“There is commitment on the part of government that the infrastructure that supports linkages of feeders into the national parks and the Victoria Falls are addressed. There is focus to complete the route which we expect will ease movement, bring down costs of doing business in tourism and promote tourism in the country,” he said.

Source: No Threats of Victoria Falls Deregistration by UNESCO (14/06/10)

Victoria Falls World Heritage status under threat

The governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe are in a mad scramble to complete a document to be given to UNESCO on the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site. The report was first requested by UNESCO in 2002 and then again in 2006. Various deadlines have been passed and extensions given. The latest deadline of February 1, 2010 has again passed, and UNESCO has received no document.

In 2007, the joint Zambia/Zimbabwe team requested for financial assistance in the amount of US$30,000 to help them to undertake the report. UNESCO gave them this assistance but still has no report.

The private sectors on both sides of the border are very alarmed at their governments’ inability to produce this document. Not only is the report important for the continued luxury of having the Victoria Falls as a World Heritage Site, but it is also important in its content.


UNESCO required the governments to form a Joint Management Team and an Integrated Management Plan for the site. It also requested that certain issues were addressed. The main issue in 2006 was Zambia’s worrying commitment to further development within the site; development which UNESCO felt compromised its beauty and integrity. Other concerns were on invasive species such as lantana and water hyacinth; pollution in the river; the water extraction by Zambia for hydro-electricity generation; and the continued licensing of helicopters, microlights, and other tourism services.

To be fair to both governments, some measures have been undertaken to protect the World Heritage Site. A balloon operation, which started its life in Zimbabwe and then moved over to Zambia, was discontinued. The lantana on the Zambian side is being eradicated with private sector assistance; in the meantime, though, the lantana has become a forest on the Zimbabwe side. Again, on the Zambian side, the water hyacinth problem is being tackled. The development of a hotel on the Zambian side was stopped because of concerns from the private sector but still rumbles on in the background.

The Victoria Falls World Heritage Site was proclaimed in 1989. It covers the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park in Zambia and the Victoria Falls National Park in Zimbabwe. A buffer zone surrounds the site, which extends to a 30 kilometer radius around the Victoria Falls. When both governments signed the agreement with UNESCO in 1989, they committed themselves to work together for the protection of the Victoria Falls and its surrounding area. It seems that their half-hearted attempts at protection will avail them nothing if they cannot produce one report and work together.

There is a small window for Zambia and Zimbabwe to submit the report before the 2010 session of the World Heritage Committee; all documents have to reach UNESCO by March 15. The scramble to complete the document is to try to meet that date. In the meantime, a large delegation from Zambia’s Ministry of Tourism starts a three-week tour of Europe, visiting London, Paris, Berlin, and Madrid, to promote tourism. As Victoria Falls is Zambia’s main tourist attraction, one can only wonder how this team will explain to the world how Zambia’s main tourist attraction has been downgraded, while they were on a tour to promote it.

Source: Victoria Falls World Heritage status under threat (28/02/10)

Council gives in to Chombo

 VICTORIA FALLS - The Town Council here has finally given in to pressure from the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Ignatius Chombo to award its former Mayor a hefty retirement package.

The council has agreed to give Tose Sansole an exit package with a total value of US$182 000. It consists of a house, car and several benefits cash benefits.

When contacted for comment the Mayor, Councillor Nkosilathi Jiyane, confirmed the latest development but was reluctant to give more details on the matter.

“The issue of the former Mayor’s package has been finalised but I’m not obliged to give details,” he said.

Chombo issued the directive sometime last year but the council has been ignoring it until now. According to a source that declined to be named, the local authority decided to comply with the Minister’s directive after a heated debate between the councillors.

“We have been engaged in difficult discussions over this issue since the beginning of this year. Some of the members were adamant and they heavily opposed the matter, but they ended up giving in when the Mayor (Clr Jiyane) used his powers to get the matter implemented within the stipulated period.

“The truth of the matter is that the council has no money so it will be the ratepayers who will suffer the consequences,” said a source who requested anonymity.

Source: Council gives in to Chombo (03/02/2010)

Albida Tourism in $12m expansion drive

AFRICA Albida Tourism (AAT) which owns the world famous Victoria Falls Safari Lodge is investing up to US$16 million in a robust expansion drive as the group positions itself to optimise benefits from the recovery of the country’s tourism industry.

AAT chief executive Ross Kennedy told NewZimbabwe.com at the firm’s Harare head office that the country’s tourism sector is fast recovering from the worst effects of a decade-long economic recession and adverse international publicity.

He said occupancy levels at his firm’s properties had averaged 46 percent during the “difficult years” but have since recovered remarkably, with the Victoria Falls Safari lodge now averaging about 82 percent.

“Even the United States and United Kingdom markets have bounced back with the US alone making up to 23 percent of my business in the first quarter of this year while 26 percent of our visitors came from the UK.

“Occupancies for the whole of the Victoria Falls region have spiked to 76 percent from lows of about 40 percent in the last decade,” Kennedy said.

AAT has also reopened the Bumi Hills Safari lodge in Kariba which had been closed over the last ten years and is investing up to US$16 million to expand local operations as well as venture into the region.

The investment will see the addition of 24 rooms at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge to increase capacity to 96 as well as the development of a new18-bed luxury lodge in neighbouring Bostwana.

However the main project is the US$12 million development of Santonga eco-tourism park in Victoria Falls which Kennedy described as a ‘major drawcard’ for the destination.

“Santonga will bring to the Vic Falls something that is missing at the moment, which is a genuine family oriented activity. It will absolutely please everyone from 2 year-olds to those who are a hundred years old.

“The project is a good example of what, in industry-speak, we call edutainment and encompasses wildlife, conservation and experiential activities,” Kennedy added.

Santonga is a multi-faceted eco-park that is designed to deepen visitors’ appreciation of local culture and the history of the Victoria Falls.

Key features of the project which will be located in a wildlife area include a replica of the Great Zimbabwe monuments, a reptile park, a 600-seater drumbeat amphitheatre as well as an African-themed restaurant which will seat up to 300 diners.


Kennedy said the Santonga is expected to help lengthen visitor stay in the Falls and thereby boost the country’s benefits from its prime resort.

“The average stay in the Falls is presently two-and-a-half nights. If we can get existing visitors to stay one more night - even without adding another pair of legs - that alone would boost business by up to 25 percent,” Kennedy said.

The new projects AAT is carrying out are expected to create another 140 jobs bringing the group’s overall employee numbers to 249.

“There will also be huge downstream benefits because of what will be consumed in the park, raw material supplies as well as general retail spend,” the AAT chief said.

The group also operates the Hide Lodge in Hwange National Park as well as the successful African-themed Boma restaurant located next to the Vic Falls Safari lodge.

Kennedy said there are plans to take the Boma concept to Livingstone town in Zambia and South Africa’s Cape Town.

Source: Albida Tourism in $12m expansion drive (Dec 2009)

Jackson wanted Victoria Falls as backdrop for final tour

Kenny Ortega, producer and director of This Is It, which was released last week, said: “The night before he died we had completed all of the physicality of the show as it would have been staged at the O2.

“Michael stood out at the front of the stage that night with me and looked out into the empty arena and said, ‘This is the dream. We did it good, Kenny. We did it’.

“There was this feeling in the air, and in our minds we were already on the plane. Michael said, ‘You can feel London. You can smell it’.”

As Jackson hopped on board a golf cart that took him to his waiting car after each rehearsal, he turned to associate producer and choreographer Travis Payne. “I shouted ‘I love you’ to him,” said Payne. “He smiled back and said ‘I love you more’.

“That was the last time I saw him – the last time any of us saw him.” Less than 18 hours later, Jackson lay dead after an overdose of the anaesthetic Propofol and the dream of one of the most spectacular comebacks in music history died with him.

The Sunday Express can reveal that Jackson and his team had lined up a series of show-stopping events and special guest stars for his 50 London performances.

Approaches had been made to Mick Jagger, Bono and Lady Gaga and special effects stunts were to include a Jumbotron screen 3D “experience”.

Details of the spectacular emerged last week as This Is It, the movie compiled from more than 100 hours of rehearsal footage, registered box office takings of £12million worldwide in its first day. Fans have staged protests, including one outside last week’s celebrity premiere at Los Angeles’s Nokia Theatre, claiming Jackson had been “pushed beyond his limit” by tour promoters AEG. But Ortega insisted the star was “bursting to go” at his final rehearsal.

“I was watching Michael come back to life during a period when he’d been really beaten down,” he said. “He wasn’t looking for validation or to prove anything.

“I was in his dressing room and I said, ‘I can’t wait for the curtain to draw back. You’re going to get the validation you deserve and that people tried to rob from you’. He just laughed and said, ‘You’re so funny’. What he was really saying was that the only thing that motivated him was the music and dance routines.”

Weeks earlier, Jackson had telephoned Ortega at 3am. “He said, ‘Victoria Falls’. I mumbled, half-asleep, ‘That’s in Africa’. Then he said he wanted Victoria Falls on a big screen worked into his London set.

“Michael wanted the world up there on that stage with him, in 3D. He wanted to hand out 3D glasses to members of the audience and said to me, ‘Imagine all those people putting on their glasses at the same time to watch Victoria Falls behind me’.”

Music director Michael Bearden said: “Michael wanted to fix everything. He stopped one routine because he heard a single wrong note. Nobody else did, but he said, ‘Trust me. It’s wrong. Listen to my original record’.

Jackson’s dancers also said he was in an ebullient mood. Devin Jamiesen said: “He couldn’t stand still. He just kept moving, trying out new things. You could tell he was amped up.”

Source: Revealed: Jackson's last words (1/11/09)

Change to Visa Requirement Into Zimbabwe

Historically, any person holding a single entry visa who may have left Zimbabwe (E.G. a day-visit to nearby Chobe National Park or a day-visit to the Zambia side of the Victoria Falls) but intended retuning to Zimbabwe to overnight was not requested to reapply for an additional visa upon return.

However, with immediate effect, Zimbabwe will be charging for re-entry visas for anybody who has left the country on a day trip. This information received today (Monday October 18, 2009) seems to have been in place for a few days already.

Any passengers leaving Zimbabwe on a day trip MUST purchase a multiple entry visa for Zimbabwe on arrival at first entry.

The same rule applies in the opposite direction,  if you arrive into the Victoria Falls International Airport, you will need to purchase a visa to enter Zimbabwe merely to take an overland transfer to Botswana.

Source: Change to Visa Requirement Into Zimbabwe (19/10/09)

Zimbabwean Tour Guide plunges into the Victoria Falls gorge

Victoria Falls (ZimEye) – A professional tour guide is believed to have died after falling to the Victoria Falls rain-forest gorges.

Police confirmed the incident, which left Victoria Falls and Livingstone, Zambia residents dumbfounded.

Chief Inspector Chisoni, Police Officer in Charge of Victoria Falls police station in Livingstone, Zambia said the incident happened on Wednesday afternoon on the Zambian side of the rainforest.

He said the guide was trying to save a tourist who was about to fall into the gorges at a spot called The Devil’s Pool.

The name of the guide is still being withheld as his next of kin are still to be notified but according to sources, the guide was working for a South African based tour company called Sunway Safaris.

“He came here (Livingstone) driving a minibus with tourists from South Africa and were booked at the Water Front,” said the source.

“They then went to the devils pool, a death trap which is very close to the edge of the main falls which are 90 metres deep.”

He said on getting out of the pool, one of the tourists slipped and was about to fall into the gorges.

“The tour guide quickly grabbed his hand and successfully pulled him back into the pool but in the process lost balance and fell 90 metres down,” he said.

The source said every year someone dies at the devils pool.

“People should just be banned from going near the place because it is dangerous. On the Zimbabwean side, there are barriers put in place all over. That should be done here,” he said.

Help was called in and tour operators sent in helicopters.

The fire brigade, police and well wishers responded but they could not locate the guide.

Source: Zimbabwean Tour Guide plunges into the Victoria Falls gorge (27/09/09)

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