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Cyclists being cleared by immigration and Zimra officials at a makeshift camp at Pondrift Border

Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
A TOTAL of 340 tourists are participating in this year’s edition of Tour de Tuli tourism expedition which started on Saturday in the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area (GMTFCA).

The mega park is located in the western part of Beitbridge, an animal sanctuary in three countries: Northern Tuli Game Reserve in Botswana, Zimbabwe’s Tuli National Park and the Mapungubwe National Park in South Africa.

Cyclists pass through the three countries during the course of the event.

The Tour de Tuli expedition, which involves mountain bike tours, seeks to market the conservation area as one of the best tourist resorts in the Sadc region. Participants in this year’s event were drawn from the United States of America, Britain, Canada, Germany, Angola, South Africa, Dubai, Botswana, Portugal, Greece and Zimbabwe, among others.

The event is being held under the theme “Uniting Africa” and it is the 11th expedition, but the 6th in which Zimbabwe is participating since joining in 2009.

Tour director Nicola Harris said they received more than 500 applications from tourists interested in participating in this year’s expedition but others were turned down.

“We had about 500 who were interested in taking part in this tourism expedition but we could only accommodate 350 and 150 support staff. Ten more participants withdrew at the eleventh hour due to medical reasons” she said.

The group entered Botswana on August 13 from South Africa through Pondrift Border Post and arrived in Zimbabwe on Saturday morning. They will leave for South Africa today.

Harris said their target was to raise about R1. 5million from the expedition which will be channelled towards charity programmes in the participating countries.

She said each cyclist paid R23,500 and participants brought their own bicycles while others were sponsored.

Harris described the expedition as a great success and commended the level of coordination and cooperation between authorities from the three countries.

“The event has been growing with each passing year and you’ll note that half of the participants were newcomers. This year we were only affected by the heat but everything else was excellent” she said.

Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) head of Domestic Marketing and Destination Division Anna Moyo said some of Tour de Tuli cyclists had previously participated in the Tour De France

“This is a great opportunity for us to market Zimbabwe, a world of wonders as a destination of choice. We’re also looking at promoting regional integration through tourism,” she said.