Prestigious awards have been awarded to two Zimbabwean organisations from Victoria Falls for championing some of the African continent’s best work in Responsible Tourism.
Gold for Wild Horizons
The double win at the World Travel Market Responsible Tourism Awards Africa for Zimbabwe was led by Wild Horizons.
The respected provider of tours and adventure activities in and around Victoria Falls received a Gold Award for ‘Growing the Local Economic Benefit’. The judges especially recognised four of their initiatives. Their Pay It Forward initiative enables clients to select a cause they would like to support in the locality they are visiting. A guide-driver then takes them to various markets where they have the opportunity to buy items requested by the good cause. They also get an opportunity to explore more of the local area before delivering the items to the organisation.
A home-hosted meal initiative enables staff open their homes to travellers who get to experience local dishes and hospitality. The experience aims to foster a deeper understanding of local customs for guests while enabling staff to share their heritage and earn extra income.
Their village tours offer extra income sources to rural communities while enriching the guest experience in Victoria Falls. Finally, the Raincoat Rainforest initiative donates raincoats to an association of independent vendors. They then hire these out to Wild Horizons guests and other visitors to the Falls to earn income.
Silver for We Are Victoria Falls
We Are Victoria Falls (WAVF) then won the Silver Award for ‘Sustaining Employees and communities throughout the Pandemic’. The independent, public-private partnership initiative represents the tourism community of Victoria Falls.
An impressive 180 large, small, formal and informal stakeholders have joined WAVF with over 100 making in-kind contributions to support community initiatives and tourism programmes. They have also volunteered time, resources, transport, or equipment to support activities. Among the many initiatives has been the engagement with over 100 local residents to create a week-long event ‘Visit your Backyard’. This provided a morale booster and built solidarity with industry players. Stakeholders in and around nearby Hwange National Park have subsequently formed the Association for Tourism Hwange and Lake Kariba stakeholders have been in discussions about how they can create a similar initiative.
‘It means a lot for Victoria Falls to be recognized in this category’ said Ms Shelley Cox of WAVF. ‘We have an extraordinary community, and we live our values. We are responsible for one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and we want to be a world leader in sustainability, conservation and responsible tourism’.
The ‘life force’ of Victoria Falls
Speaking about the award, Permanent Secretary Munesu Munodawafa of the Ministry for Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry said; ‘Tourism is the life-force of Victoria Falls – it provides jobs, skills and meaningful exchange with the rest of the world. It is the reason we all get up in the morning and when it suffers, we all suffer.’ The minister, commending initiatives like WAVF, added: ‘In Zimbabwe, I like to think we do things differently. We get up and we make a plan to make sure we all come through together.’
From the low points of 2020 Victoria Falls is now seeing signs of recovery. Trade confidence in booking Victoria Falls has nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, with 74% of trade feeling confident in the destination, compared to 85% in 2019 – according to a recent survey.
Top image: Victoria Falls (Credit: fietzfotos / Pixabay)
