HARARE, Zimbabwe — Call it anti-World Cup fever: Campsites and budget-price game lodges in Zimbabwe are receiving bookings from South Africans trying to escape the frenzy of the world’s biggest sporting event at home, according to tour operators and officials.
But other South African neighbors — Botswana with its game parks, Mozambique with its beaches, Swaziland with a slice of royal life — also hope to benefit from World Cup tourists who want to see a bit more of the continent.
Zimbabwe’s National Parks department, in charge of the nation’s 11 nature preserves, reported a last-minute rush of bookings during and surrounding the June 11-July 11 World Cup.
Emmanuel Fundira, head of the Zimbabwe Council of Tourism, said photogenic safari locations like the Mana Pools wilderness park, on the northern Zambezi river border with neighboring Zambia, were already filling up.
“We must bear in mind South Africans will be running away from the event . . . we see this pattern translating into local bookings,’’ he said.
Zimbabwe’s biggest tourist attraction is Victoria Falls on the Zambezi river in the northwest. Seeing the falls is a once-in-a-lifetime experience: They constitute the widest curtain of falling water in the world — more than a mile (1.7 kilometers) wide — and are expected to attract World Cup visitors on quick direct flights from South Africa. The resort town has campsites, bed-and-breakfast cottages, and 930 star-rated hotel rooms.
But expectations of how many tourists will come are lower than they once were. Despite its abundant animal and natural attractions, Zimbabwe has been hard hit by years of economic and political turmoil, with world-record inflation and a transitional coalition government still headed by longtime ruler President Robert Mugabe.
Originally the Harare government had hoped that up to 30 percent of soccer fans visiting South Africa would make a side trip to Zimbabwe, but expectations are lower now.
“We had false euphoria four years ago,’’ said tourism minister Walter Mzembi.
Tourism in Zimbabwe peaked at 1.4 million in 1999, before the often violent seizures of white-owned farms began in 2000, disrupting the agriculture-based economy and leading to economic meltdown.
The country has now reverted almost entirely to a hard currency cash economy, mostly on the US dollar. Major hotels accept foreign credit cards, but many stores do not have swipe card facilities, and those that do suffer constant outages on their machines.
South Africa’s other neighbors have been sprucing up their image ahead of the World Cup and trying to make life easier for visitors.
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