American tourists survive aircraft accident in Livingstone

AN adventurous fly over the Victoria falls almost ended deadly after the helicopter that two American tourist had booked was trying to return to the airstrip and it’s engine suddenly stopped prompting the pilot to apply emergency landing procedures yesterday.

Details are that around 16:30 hours, the two American Nationals who are lodging at Royal Hotel booked the helicopter from Batoka Sky Livingstone to fly over the Victoria Falls and the surrounding areas.

The aircraft was flown by a male South African pilot, Steenkamp Reyneke, aged 33 and their journey took off from Batoka Sky at 16:40 hours. The duration of the flight was 15 minutes. But as time for landing came, Reyneke was trying to return the Aircraft to the airstrip, heading to Chrisma Hotel and  flying above the sewer ponds.

Suddenly as the helicopter flew in the Zambian sky, its engine stopped, prompting the pilot to apply emergency landing procedures. However, the circumstances left the pilot with no option but to execute an emergency landing in an area which seemed to be open and without obstacles, but eventually landed in the sewer ponds as the aircraft could not glide further.

The accident happened at 17:10 hours, leaving one of the helicopter rotar blades deformed, but with no serious damages. Luckily for the two passengers and pilot, they survived without any injuries and were immediately evacuated after the accident.

Batoka Sky Livingstone Manager, Daniel Geldenhuys, 44 then reported the matter to Livingstone Central police station. Southern Province police Commanding Officer, Auxensio Daka who confirmed the incident said police visited the scene and found the helicopter partially submerged in the sewer ponds which is covered by aqua [acquatic] vegetation.

Source: American tourists survive aircraft accident in Livingstone (21/08/24)

Zimbabwe Tourism Industry has achieved 2025 US$5 billion target

 Leonard Ncube – leonard.ncube@chronicle.co.zw

GOVERNMENT believes the tourism industry has achieved its US$5 billion target set for 2025 and is working on a digital system that will help monitor and account for every transaction to close leakages and guarantee the sector’s contribution to the national economy.

Government set a target to achieve a US$5 billion tourism industry by 2025 spearheaded by arrivals and developments in the sector.

Speaking in Victoria Falls this Saturday, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Deputy Minister Tongai Mnangagwa said the tourism industry had surpassed its target for a US$5 billion industry by 2025 but was being hampered by under-declaring of transaction by operators.

Dep Minister Mnangagwa said arrivals and bookings over the years show that the US$5 billion target had been met.

He was speaking soon after leading a ceremonial tee-off at the 2024 Sterling Group International Pairs Golf Tournament National Finals being played at Elephant Hills Golf Course in Victoria Falls.

More than 120 amateur golfers from across the country were expected to participate at the tournament for a chance to progress to the World Finals in Tenerife, Spain next month.

Sterling Group of Hotels are sponsoring the tournament in partnership with Albatross Golf Safaris and Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) with the sporting event coming in as one of the activities aimed at drumming up the brand Zimbabwe campaign, and complementing the Vision 2030.

“Just for these two days we are looking at about US$200 000 spent by people who came, looking at occupancy. In the long run we are saying we want to push domestic tourism as people move to play golf so that the US$5 billion industry is achieved very easy.

“In my personal capacity we have actually passed the US$5 billion industry. The Challenge is that our operators don’t declare actual figures on occupancy because they want to cut down that 2 percent that they remit to Zimbabwe Tourism Authority but if you look at numbers we have actually surpassed the target,” he said.

Dep Minister Mnangagwa said domestic tourism was more important than to wait for international tourists.

He said for any economy to move there is need for spending and creation of employment which helps in growth towards attaining vision 2030.

“We are going to surpass mining and agriculture and soon we will be number 1 contributor to the gross domestic product. What we are saying about under-declaring is, we are coming up with a system or software where every organisation will be made to adhere to and we will be using it to calculate automatically who came in and how many days spent.

“So it is going to be very easy. It will be digital, that is where the world is going. His Excellency President Mnangagwa is pushing towards that and as a Ministry we found it prudent that we also go in that line where every calculation is done and we are able to predict,” said the Dep Minister.

With reference to the ongoing Sadc Heads of State Summit, Dep Minister Mnangagwa said it is a key development that drives tourism as all 16 member States are closely following the event which on its own is advertising for the whole region to recognise that Zimbabwe is there and is a good destination to visit.

Source:  Zimbabwe Tourism Industry has achieved 2025 US$5 billion target (17/08/24)