Theme park to be constructed near Victoria Falls

It's a multi-million dollar vision which some have laughed off but that hasn't stopped Walter Mzembi from dreaming.
"Call it Victoria Falls modern them park or Africa Disney and as the media has named it. We want to make sure that the Old Victorian setting as it currently exists today will co-exist with ultra-modern Victoria Falls," said Walter Mzembi, the Zimbabwean Tourism Minister.
And that means setting up amusement parks, casinos and specially themed zones to target visitors from different parts of the world the idea has already won over potential financiers.
"From what I am seeing now there is huge international interest. What we need to do now is complete the conceptualisation of the project in the manner that I am saying now that we must align it to other projects internationally before we issue an international expression of interest," said Walter Mzembi.
Current estimates put the cost of 300 hectare development at 460 million dollars. A massive investment that will pay off, when the millions who visit this crown jewel of Zimbabwe's tourism industry spend more money here.
"We want to be able to say they can stay beyond 24 hours. Now they fly in through South Africa. They do a day plus one and off they go because there is nothing else to capture their imagination for the rest of the week so we want to introduce this diversity of products," said Walter Mzembi.
And this not the only big news in town. A 150 million dollar upgrade of the Victoria Falls airport is near completion and has aviation industry players excited.
"We can increase our frequency into Victoria Falls because the capacity to take more passengers is now there, the runway is bigger we can open the airport for longer because now we have runway lights and we can do night flights into Victoria falls," said Matipedza Karase, the Country Manager of Fly Africa.
While the international tourist seems to be the main target locals will get in on the action too.
Source: Theme park to be constructed near Victoria Falls (01/02/15)