Victoria Falls has retained its tourism boom, forcing Air Zimbabwe and hotel operators to stretch their services to try and meet surging demand.

In separate interviews, Air Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority said both flights and accommodation facilities were fully booked until the end of October. So overwhelming have been the tourist arrivals to Victoria Falls that Air Zimbabwe has re-introduced direct flights from Harare, seven days a week. This is an increase from four direct flights. Some tourists wishing to travel from Victoria Falls to Harare are now flying via Johannesburg to connect to Harare.

Until recently, Air Zimbabwe was having four direct flights to the Falls per week and three indirect flights (via Bulawayo). Air Zimbabwe public relations manager Mr David Mwenga said the national airliner was overwhelmed by demand for the Victoria Falls route, leaving it with no option but to increase flights.

"The demand is too high and we are now increasing our daily direct flights to Victoria Falls from four to seven per week. This means that we will be flying to the Falls directly, every day.

"Since end of July, our planes are fully booked until the end of October. Even then, we have people booking for tickets for the period after October and we just have to respond to the demand," said Mr Mwenga. He added: "Our flights are full and it is not only because of the cheaper old prices as even with the new prices the demand for our flights is too high."

ZTA chief executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke said all hotels and lodges in Victoria Falls were fully booked until the end of October.

"All hotels and lodges have been fully booked for the past month or so and will remain so until about end of October. But, you see, there are still new bookings being made. "Last week we had to flex our muscles as ZTA to get accommodation for a three-man Chinese delegation that had flown directly to Victoria Falls and we had to apologise for the inconvenience.

"The delegation wanted to fly to Harare but the flights were fully booked, so they had to connect to Harare via Johannesburg. Such is the situation now at Victoria Falls.

"Imagine one has to go via South Africa to access Harare from Victoria Falls because there is an upsurge of tourist visits," he said. Mr Kaseke said the hotel industry was looking for expansion opportunities to cope with demand. ZTA, he said, was now working on the capacity statistics for all the hotels and lodges in Victoria Falls so that it can compare with the demands for the 2010 World Cup guests.

Air Zimbabwe is doubling flights to Masvingo and Buffalo Range from two per week to four, following overwhelming response.

Source :- allafrica