Tourism is Zimbabwe’s fastest-growing industry. The country offers a large variety of scenery, one of the African continent’s finest and largest concentrations of wildlife, a perfect climate (an average of 7 hours of sunshine daily throughout the year).Places of interest include the Victoria Falls (one of the 7 wonders of the world), Hwange National Park, Kariba, Gonarezhou National Park, Eastern Highlands, the Great Zimbabwe Monument, and Nyanga.
The magnificent spectacle of African Wildlife is a key factor in Zimbabwe’s tourism success. Tourists are either moved or excited by a sight of a herd of elephants moving with a ponderous grace to a waterhole, or rolling in mud-baths like children at play; a lion moving stealthily in pursuit of its quarry, herds of skittish wildebeest or neat zebra, or the see-saw gallop of giraffe. The “Big Five” i.e. elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard, and rhinoceros can all be seen in their natural habitats in the country. As one of the progressive countries in Africa in the field of wildlife management, Zimbabwe has reserved 5 million hectares, or 13% of the country’s land area, as parks and wildlife estates, conserving one of the largest remaining concentrations of animal life.
The world-renowned Victoria Falls, which the local Kololo tribe calls Mosi-oa-tunya (the smoke that thunders), is one of Africa’s most scenic and enchanting sights. Re-named after Queen Victoria by the first white man to see them, David Livingstone in 1855, when local people showed him. The Victoria Falls has 545,000,000 litres of water plunging every minute into a chasm 106 metres deep, making them the tallest and grandest water falls in the world. The Zambezi River at the falls is over 1.6 kilometres wide.
The Falls have been declared national parks to preserve the area from excessive commercialization and is one of the four World Heritage sites found in Zimbabwe.
Situated a few kilometres upstream is the Zambezi National Park with game reserves of elephant, hippo, crocodile, zebra, and many bird species, including the largest herds of the rare sable antelope.
The Victoria Falls National Park covers the area immediately downstream from the Falls, and incorporates the numerous gorges that comprised the Falls in earlier ages.
The Ministry of Tourism aims to develop and manage policy programmes and strategies that enhance sustainable development and growth of the tourism and hospitality industry
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA)
This is an entity mandated by the Government of Zimbabwe to promote travel and tourism to Zimbabwe.
Information about tourism in Zimbabwe has been summarized to include the following;
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