Tour operators irk Zambia for marketing Victoria Falls as being in South Africa

LUSAKA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government said on Wednesday that it would engage the South African government if some tour operators in that country continued to market the Victoria Falls as being in South Africa.

Howard Skiwela, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and Arts, said the government will be left with no choice but to involve the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to engage South Africa on a government-to-government level over continued claims by some tour operators that the Victoria Falls was in South Africa.

The tourist attraction is situated on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The official told reporters during a press briefing that such incorrect marketing by some foreign tour operators has negatively affected tourist inflows into Zambia.

He has since directed the country's tourism marketing agency, the Zambia Tourism Board, to extensively start marketing the Victoria Falls in order to dismiss the wrong notion.

Meanwhile, Zambia has partnered with Ireland to include the Victoria Falls in the Global Greening Initiative for the first time on March 15 and 17 this year.

The Zambian government official said the initiative, which will see the Victoria Falls illuminated in green color, will go a long way in giving the Victoria Falls maximum exposure.

Source: Tour operators irk Zambia for marketing Victoria Falls as being in South Africa (13/03/19)

Vic Falls is ours, not yours: Zim tells SA

SOUTH Africa must stop advertising Victoria Falls as its own destination, as Zimbabwe is losing out in terms of tourism revenues, deputy chief secretary to the President and Cabinet, Ray Ndhlukula, has said.

Speaking at an All Stakeholders Zimbabwe Image Management workshop in Harare yesterday, Ndhlukula said it was disturbing that tourists were now flying in and out of Zimbabwe on the same day.

“Do you know South Africa advertises Victoria Falls as if it belongs to South Africa? That is what they do. A lot of people (tourists) get the impression that Victoria Falls is part of South Africa. So, for example, they get to the Victoria Falls at 10am, view the falls, they have lunch there and then at 4pm, they are flying out,” he said.

“There are some people, who have asked if Victoria Falls is in South Africa, but South Africans do not tell them it is in Zimbabwe, which is very unfair for us. It is an issue we need to discuss with South Africa. Now, that we have got a bilateral agreement, they must stop advertising Victoria Falls as theirs.”

The workshop was aimed at improving the Zimbabwean brand.

Victoria Falls is the country’s premier tourist destination and has the second highest tourist occupancy rate after Harare.

The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority first quarter report shows that Victoria Falls had an occupancy rate of 35% from 450 572 tourists, who visited the country during that period.

The threat of neighbouring countries, mainly, South Africa and Zambia, was seen when occupancy levels declined by 2% from the first quarter of 2015.

Zimbabwe Council of Tourism (ZCT) president, Francis Ngwenya said “something” needed to be done, as the competition from neighbouring countries had become a major challenge facing the tourism sector.

“The reason why South Africa started marketing the country as theirs was because during the 2008/9 crisis, Zimbabwe could only market the country with South Africa and Zambia. This led to our brand (Zimbabwe) being overtaken. So something needs to be done,” he said.

Ngwenya said the country had to use Zambia and South Africa because of the negative perception that came from the 2008/9 period.

An analyst said that from his previous experience, the only way to market Victoria Falls and stop other countries from elbowing out Zimbabwe was to offer a very attractive package that would lure tourists to explore the country beyond Victoria Falls.

In 2015, ZCT polled 145 tourists staying at Victoria Falls, and discovered 74% to be using international agents in making their trip, with only 10% preferring local agents. The average budget for tourists was $1 900 per visit.

However, ZCT found that 52% of them underestimated the costs and ended up spending more than their budget.

The average stay for a tourist is two to three nights.

Source: Vic Falls is ours, not yours: Zim tells SA (09/11/16)

Botswana minister in canned lion controversy

Source: Africa Geographic Blog
Date: 12 Dec 2013

Botswana’s Minister of Agriculture, Christian de Graaff, is under fire after he exported a large shipment of lions to a canned hunting outfit in South Africa last month.

De Graaff sent 22 lions to the Makhulu Game Farm near Boshof in the Free State (South Africa). Employees at the facility, owned by Henk Vorster, openly discuss how the lions are hunted and their skeletons sold to Asian buyers. Some are bred for sale to international zoos.

At the game farm, a popular local tourist venue about 80km from Kimberley, 18 young lions were crammed together in a small quarantine enclosure of about 30m by 30m this week. With no shade and only a tiny corrugated iron-roofed hut to protect them, they were panting furiously in the blazing heat.

According to Werner Böing, the Environmental Management Inspector at the Free State Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Vorster is an “approved predator breeder in our province and his facility is up to standard”. Permits have been issued to move the 22 lions from Botswana to the Free State, he said.

De Graaff’s involvement in the breeding and hunting of lions was exposed by Botswana’s Mmegi newspaper in September. An investigation revealed that in 2005, the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks captured and donated two “problem” Kalahari lions, a male and a female, to De Graaff’s company, Phologolo Botswana Safaris.

The lions were kept at his Tautona Lodge in Ghanzi and had multiplied to 32 by the time he sent his shipment to the Free State in November. According to Mmegi, a dispute has arisen between De Graaff and Botswana’s Minister of Wildlife and Tourism, Tshekedi Khama, over whether the lions belong to him or the Botswana government, which has banned trophy hunting.

This is not the first deal De Graaff has done with commercial game farmers in the Free State. In 2011, he was given permits to export 26 lions to a farm called Smal Deel Unissen.