Zimbabwe plans US$300m theme park for Victoria Falls
Not a Disneyland, but Zimbabwe is aiming to build a US$300m attraction on a similar scale
The formula has worked in California, Hong Kong and Paris. Now officials in Zimbabwe, eager to rebrand a country notorious for economic collapse and political violence, want to build a "Disneyland in Africa".
Walter Mzembi, the tourism and hospitality minister, told New Ziana, the official news agency, that the government was planning a US$300 million theme park near Victoria Falls, the country's top tourist attraction.
We have reserved 1,200 hectares of land closer to Victoria Falls international airport to do hotels and convention centres
Mzembi was quoted as saying the resort would be a "Disneyland in Africa", although he did not appear to suggest that the statue of explorer David Livingstone, which overlooks the falls, would be supplanted by an actor in a Mickey Mouse costume. Nor was he proposing an actual Disneyland.
Instead, he outlined plans for shopping malls, banks and exhibition and entertainment facilities such as casinos. "We have reserved 1,200 hectares of land closer to Victoria Falls international airport to do hotels and convention centres," Mzembi told New Ziana on the sidelines of the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) general assembly, which Victoria Falls is co-hosting with the town of Livingstone in neighbouring Zambia.
Mzembi said the project would cost about US$300 million.
"We want to create a free zone with a banking centre where even people who do not necessarily live in Zimbabwe can open bank accounts," he said.