Tourism bounty brings added responsibilities

Source: Business day

Date: 3 October, 2005

Author: Dianna Games

A few weeks ago, a tourist from Zimbabwe was shot dead in the lower Zambezi, a private game area in Zambia, by a roving poacher with an AK-47 who also seriously wounded her husband.

The couple had pulled over on the dirt road that serves as the main road through the area early one morning and were confronted by the gun-wielding man who demanded money. When they resisted, they were shot through the vehicle window. The man was shot again from behind as he ran from the vehicle, and three more shots were pumped into his wife.

That same morning, I was also travelling along that road with my family after a week in a private game camp along the Zambezi river, one of 23 private and commercial tourist operations along a 17km stretch of river bank bordering northern Zimbabwe. The area is controlled by the chieftain of the adjoining tribal area.

When we reached the scene of the crime, a few dozen villagers and game scouts were crowded around the car in which the body still lay. Someone asked us for a towel to cover her face.

Her husband, meanwhile, had been found along the road, bleeding profusely, and was treated at a nearby tourist camp before being taken to a hospital in nearby Chirundu, on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border.

On arriving in Chirundu more than an hour later, three hours after the incident, we saw two policemen leaving for the scene.

This had taken so long, the locals told us, because police had no transport and had had to rely on the offer from a tour operator, in the police station to sort out another incident, to take them.

Meanwhile, along the river, it was lunchtime before the government’s antipoaching unit even started to mobilise.

They had no transport, appeared to have no radios for contact, and those that did said they did not have batteries.

Tour operators brought in resources to supplement the game scouts’ and eventually parties set off, following tracks believed to be those of the killer, who had a head start.

The suspect was believed to be a scout, one of a group of mostly untrained villagers armed by the government for anti-poaching activities.

He was among five men arrested the night before by the Zambia Wildlife Authority for poaching. He had escaped, with his weapon, from their vehicle.

Tour operators complained that the tourism ministry showed little interest in the incident, asking for details in writing when they were informed, instead of immediately seeing what damage control was needed.

The wildlife authority itself is an underfunded organisation with rundown headquarters outside Lusaka, and relies on the services of largely untrained and under-resourced game scouts. The Lower Zambezi National Park, which adjoins the game area, is undeveloped.

The Zambian government has earmarked tourism as one of its economic priorities for revenue generation, which makes the response of its agencies to the killing of a tourist surprising.

On my flight to Zambia, I noticed a glossy advertisement placed in the in-flight magazine by the Zambian government advertising Victoria Falls, on which it appears to be focusing its tourist promotion activities.

Zimbabwe has made the falls the focus of its renewed effort to get tourists back. But it has chosen to ignore that government-sanctioned land invasions have spilled over into famous wildlife areas, where crops are now grown and animals slaughtered.

Ministers have taken over some hunting areas, where the activity is uncontrolled, undermining years of careful game management and community initiatives.

While the private sector runs most game-related enterprises in both countries, the governments have a duty to properly support all areas of tourism, including wildlife areas, which form a vital and complementary part of the package tourists are looking for.

Governments also have a duty to provide supplementary services, such as having a properly equipped police force and wildlife authority to back up private operators, not force them to do the government’s work in the event of a crisis.

Tourism officials, as the face of tourism, have an important role to play in keeping the flag flying. When a tourist is killed, support from the authorities should be rapid and multipronged. It takes only one incident to damage tourism prospects, even if it is an isolated one such as the one that has been described.

And the suspected murderer in the Zambian story?

He was found dead in his village two days later, after poisoning himself.

Games is director of Africa @ Work, a publishing and research company.