adminThupeyo Muleya Beitbridge
THE Inaugural Wildrun tourism was successfully held in the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation area (GMTFCA) with 30 tourists drawn from the United States, South Africa and Botswana participating. The GMTFCA is made up of national parks from Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. Zimbabwe’s Transfrontier Conservation area (TFCA) programme officer, Kuda Chigodo, said the expedition seeks to market the Mega Park as the best tourist resort in the Sadc region.
She said participants had the opportunity to run following the treks of wild animals in the park for 90 kilometres. The group entered Zimbabwe through a makeshift border post between Mapungubwe National Park in South Africa and Maramani communal camp in Beitbridge district on Thursday.
“The whole idea is to promote tourism in the TFCA as well as develop community based tourism. You’ll note that so far Boundless Southern Africa has donated camping equipment worth R327,000 to upgrade the Maramani Community Camp in Beitbridge,” Chigodo said.
She said participants stayed at the camp for the duration of the event, paying $10 per head daily and another $10 to traverse the park during the wild run.
Wildrun Director Owen Middleton said they were looking forward to turning the expedition into an annual event just like the Tour de Tuli which is held in the same area every year.
“We’re looking at increasing the number of participants to 80 next year. Events like these help to unlock future tourism opportunities and projects. We decided to set camp in Zimbabwe this time so that the community could derive maximum benefits from cultural and natural resources around them,” he said.
“We’ll build on the success of this event for future programmes and we’re very grateful for the support from the governments of Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa for the privilege to have such an event.”
Beitbridge District Administrator Simon Muleya said the success of the Wildrun was the first step towards promoting cross border products in the TFCA, with Tour de Tuli having set the pace since 2009.
“This event puts Beitbridge on the tourism map and encourages more investment in community tourism for the benefit of our people. The support given to our local business through procurement of consumables can’t be underestimated.
“We also appreciate the donation of camp equipment made by Boundless Southern Africa,” he said.
Online Reporter