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24
Tourism
The wide variety of landforms and vegetation
zones in the Zambezi basin offer many
spectacular tourist attractions. The major
tourism destinations in the Zambezi basin are
national parks and nature reserves, with wildlife
and scenery as the primary attractions. The
big mammals which draw many tourists to the
region include elephants, buffalo, rhinoceros,
leopards and lions. Tourism, especially game
viewing, sport hunting, and fishing, has become
an increasingly important economic sector in
many of the riparian states in the Zambezi Basin
(Chenje 2000).
The Victoria Falls, on the main section of the
Zambezi River between Zambia and Zimbabwe,
is the major tourist attraction of the basin,
providing water-based tourist activities, game
viewing and dramatic scenic views. Bungee
jumping off the Victoria Falls Bridge, with its
111-metre drop, is also a major attraction. It is
one of the highest commercial jumps in the
world. Considered the most spectacular feature
along the Zambezi, the Victoria Falls is known
locally as
Mosi-oa-Tunya
(or The Smoke that
Thunders), and is one of the Seven Natural
Wonders of the World.
Water-based activities include canoeing,
boating, white-water rafting, scuba diving, and
sport fishing. Most of these activities are carried
out on the main Zambezi River, Lake Kariba and
Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa.
Lions and buffalo are among the Big Five wild animals that are popular with tourists in the Zambezi River Basin.
Bungee jumping off the
Victoria Falls bridge is a
major attraction for tourists
visiting the Zambezi basin.
River rafting down the Zambezi River is seasonal and dependent on rainfall and water levels. Low water level is
frommid-July to the end of January, while high water levels are from February to mid-July.
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© Candice Bate,
WWF
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