Chronicle Editor
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
THE 10th edition of the annual Tour de Tuli tourism expedition that was held in the Greater Mapungubwe Trans-frontier Conservation Area (GMTFCA) recently recorded a 73 percent increase in participants.
The event was held between July 27 to August 1 in the mega park, which is located on the western part of Beitbridge and covers Northern Tuli Game Reserve (Botswana), Tuli National Park and Maramani Communal lands (Zimbabwe) and the Mapungubwe National Park (South Africa).
The expedition involves mountain bike tours and seeks to market the GMTFCA as one of the best tourist resorts in the Sadc region. Cyclists pass through three countries during the course of the event with participants drawn from countries like the United States of America, Britain, Canada, Germany,
Australia, Austria, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Children in the Wilderness (CITW), a South African company, is co-ordinating the expedition on behalf of the three governments. Spokesperson, Ms Nirvani Pillay, said there were 233 new entries this year.
“The tour has been amazing and we appreciate the level of commitment by government officials from all the three countries. It is pleasing to have new and repeat bikers every year,” she said.
Zimbabwe’s GMTCA programme officer, Ms Kuda Chigodo, said it was also important to increase participation of Zimbabweans in the event in future editions.
“We need to work around having more Zimbabwean bikers at the tour and also increasing community participation. Local businesses must also explore opportunities presented by such events to promote economic development in communities living within the GMTCA,” she said.
Zimbabwean biker, Kudakwashe Shoriwa said the expedition presented opportunities for corporates to market themselves by sponsoring participants especially those living close to the mega park.
“I am participating at the tour for the second year running, but it is worrying that we have very few Zimbabweans among the team. We must work extra hard in bringing in more people,” he said.
Boundless Southern Africa’s marketing manager, Mr Roland Vorwek, said Tour de Tuli had attracted 500 participants including 320 cyclists and 180 support staff.
He said though the event was growing bigger each year it was important for Zimbabwe and South Africa to speed up the construction of a tourism link between the two countries. “It is important to have a tourists’ access point link South Africa and Zimbabwe, which seems to be the missing link in this TFCA. You will note that South Africa and Botswana has the Pont Drift border which is working well.
“The coming in of a border will help promote arrivals here (TFCA) even outside the tri-nations Wildrun and Tour de Tuli events,” said Mr Vorwek.
During the expedition, the tourists enter Botswana from South Africa through the Pont-Drift where they will camp for two nights at the Limpopo Valley Airfield. After that they proceed to Zimbabwe through a tourism border near Maramani Communal Lands and camp at the Maramani Tourism Camp for one day and leave for South Africa through another tourism border.
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