(26th May 2025, updated 8th June)
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority Tourism Trends and Statistics Report for 2024 records a meagre one percent growth in national tourism arrivals against 2023, following a 54 percent rise in 2023 over 2022 (Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs, 4th June 2024).
The report records 1,613,901 national tourism arrivals over 2024 against 1,602,781 in 2023 (Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, 2025). The figures are a reality check for over-ambitious government plans to develop of US$5 billion tourism economy by 2025, a core part of the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy.
The figures mark a sudden pause in the country's post-Covid recovery, with levels still significantly short of pre-pandemic highs of 2,579,974 arrivals recorded in 2019, while global tourism levels have largely recovered to pre-pandemic levels in 2024. Across the river Zambia recorded a record 2,199,820 foreign arrivals over 2024, a 35.3% increase on the 1,392,153 international arrivals recorded in 2023.
Breakdown of the Zimbabwe figures for 2024 record 217,017 European arrivals (against 208,710 in 2023), 134,879 from the Americas (121,953 in 2023), 100,637 Asian arrivals (99,638), 51,153 from Oceania (29,979) and 7,042 from the Middle East (8,960). Oceania markets (Pacific island region, including Australia and New Zealand) recorded a significant increase of 71% against 2023, with traditional markets such as Europe and the Americas recording only small percentage increases.
Zimbabwe Immigration data, however, recorded just 267,845 self-identified tourist or 'leisure' visitors (with 453,091 arrivals identified as 'in transit,' 456,061 visiting friends and relatives and 281,299 on business).
The sector is estimated to have generated approximately US$1.18 billion in 2024, reflecting a 2% increase from the US$1.16 billion recorded in 2023, but still a long way short of government ambitions for a US$5 billion tourism economy by 2025.
Additional figures show the south-bank Victoria Falls visitor park (the 'rainforest') received 394,681 visitors over 2024, against 302,626 in 2023, including 295,084 international visitors. The total for 2024 is just short of the record of 397,436 visitors to the Falls recorded in 2019, indicating that tourism to the Falls has recovered to pre-Covid levels. The Zambezi National Park recorded 202,618 visitors, up on the 170,605 visitors in 2023. Jointly, the Victoria Falls and Zambezi National Park recorded a combined 597,299 visitors.
Despite branding itself under the banner 'A World of Wonders,' Zimbabwe's national tourism strategy has increasingly focused on exploiting the Victoria Falls as its sole focus, neglecting once well established tourism centres across the country, such as the Matopas, Kariba, Hwange and the Eastern Highlands. Across the country, Zimbabwe's National Parks recorded at total of 998,877 visitors, with visitors to the Falls and Zambezi National Parks accounting for 59.8 percent of this total. Figures for foreign visitors show an even stronger dominance, with the Falls and Zambezi National Parks receiving 435,191 international visitors against a national total of 497,149, or 87.5 percent.
The Baines Factor
The country's over-reliance on overseas tourist arrivals to Victoria Falls also increases the tourism sectors' sensitivity to negative international headlines regarding the over-development of the Falls and negative impacts on the UNESCO World Heritage Site caused by contested tourism developments such as the Baines Restaurant, constructed within the WHS 'no new development' zone during 2022/3 and generating widespread negative headlines and legal challenges against its development (KVFW, 2023, 2024). Three years later the legal case remains to be heard and the Baines Restaurant remains open for business, while the country's reputation as responsible custodians of the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site hangs in the balance.
References
Keep Victoria Falls Wild (September 2023) Spotlight on Baines Restaurant. 11th September (revised). (pdf download)
Keep Victoria Falls Wild (July 2024) 2024 State of Development Final Report (pdf download)
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (2025) Tourism Trends and Statistics 2024. (pdf download)
Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (4th June 2024) Focus On Victoria Falls As Unrealistic Government Target Drives Unsuitable Development Rush.
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