This from The Post. Comments reserved except to say that if it wasn’t for Zesco – our alleged electricity supply company – diverting the Zambezi above the Falls for their hydro scheme, it would not be necessary to market a dry waterfall (on the Zambia side anyway).

“The Ministry of Tourism, through the national conservation commission and the Zambia Tourism Board, will introduce a new product to cater to adventure seekers at the Victoria Falls. Tourism minister Catherine Namugala, in a statement released by the ministry’s public relations unit, stated that tourism needed to be diversified in order for it to be sustainable.

“Heritage sites can be developed or adapted to play a significant role in today’s development,” she stated. The Mosi-oa-tunya/Victoria Falls World Heritage Site in Livingstone, which stretches close to 1.8 kilometres in width, is the largest curtain of falling water in the world. It is also home of the Lunar Rainbow (a night phenomenon where tourists watch the rainbow under moonlight).

The site also harbours a number of activities such as Kayaking, canoeing, bunji jumping, rafting, gorge swing, abseiling, among others. Namugala stated that despite the fact that much of these activities took place below the Falls, the lip of the Falls was deprived of adventure.

“It is for this reason that the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources through National Heritage Conservation Commission and the Zambia Tourism Board will introduce a new product to cater for adventure seekers at the site,” she stated. “The activities will only be taking place during the dryer period of the Falls from September to December. Among the activities to be undertaken during this period will be organised breakfast and lunch over the dry rocks of the Falls, guided summer walks on the rocks, rock climbing, as well as geological and geomorphologic research of the rocks by scientists as this can only be done during the dry season, and guided tours of the gorges. Other activities will be organised dinners under candle and moonlight at the Falls.”

Namugala hoped that with the introduction of such activities, the diversification of the normal tourism products at Mosi-oa-Tunya Falls would attract even more tourists during the dry periods. She noted that tourism formed a greater cornerstone to the economic and sustainable development of the nation.

Namugala stated that many countries, Zambia included, were directly concerned with tourism.
She stated that tourism in Zambia was increasingly assuming a very important role in the nation’s development. Namugala stated that the future success of tourism to a great extent depended on the ability to develop more tourist packages at some of the country’s natural resources.