SOUTHERN Africa – which includes South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Botswana, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe according to IATA (from a BSP perspective) – are all are gearing up to receive visitors for the FIFA World Cup to be held in South Africa in 2010.
A large tourism project under the ITB Berlin spotlight was the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), a conservation park of 280,000 sq km (or the size of Italy) which should be operational by 2010. The park was created in cooperation with Peace Parks Foundation and the World Wide Fund for Nature to promote tourism, and encompasses Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. The most significant item to arise at ITB was that tourists would in future be able to move through the park freely requiring only one visa to move between the countries involved.
Other news from southern Africa was the suspension by Zambian Airways of all its flights in January; Proflight Zambia now covers most options. The Zambian government also substantially reduced the visa fees payable by foreign nationals to a single entry visa for $50, and a multiple entry visa for $80.
Across the border in Zimbabwe, the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, voted Zimbabwe’s ‘Best Safari Lodge’ by the Association of Zimbabwe Travel Agents for the 12th consecutive year, is Africa Albida Tourism’s flagship. Other tourism offerings in the country include the RCI Gold Crown Resort Lokuthula Lodges and Imbabala Zambezi Safari Lodge, the Hwange camp The Hide, Kariba’s recently opened Bumi Hills Safari Lodge and Wild Horizons Sanctuary Lodge, currently under construction in the Victoria Falls National Park. Chundu Island is a new development which will offer five star luxury upstream from Victoria Falls, expected to be completed by mid 2009. From South Africa, although there have been delays in constructing the five new football stadiums and in renovating existing facilities, it is confident it will be ready to host the FIFA World Cup next year, according to a report from Travelmole.com.
FIFA has said that 55,000 beds must be available for participants and spectators during the event, and South Africa’s organisers say these are already in hand. South African Tourism (SAT) pointed out that the number of graded accommodation establishments in the country will have almost doubled between 2006 and 2010 to 9,500.
South Africa’s international arrival numbers increased by 5.5 per cent in 2008, according to figures from SAT. Visitor numbers from Europe, Germany, Asia, China and Hong Kong were down on last year, while India, its largest market, remained unchanged. Most positive for South Africa in terms of growth was an increase of 4.9 per cent from Australia and New Zealand and an 11.2 per cent increase from the Middle East, notably from Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Neighbours Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi and Zimbabwe provided the largest volume of arrivals.
In Namibia, tourism has been growing over the past five years, with international arrivals up 7.1 per cent in 2006 and 11.5 per cent in 2007 when a total of 929,000 came to the country. Figures for 2008 are not finalised, but the year is said to have ended positively, with arrivals up again by 3 to 5 per cent, reflecting considerable growth in the first half of the year.
by Cheryl Mandy