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Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau

THE annual Tour de Tuli tourism expedition, which is held in the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area (GMFTCA) roars to life this week following a sabbatical of two years that was induced by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The event will run from today to Sunday evening and had to be suspended in 2020 and 2021 as the three hosting nations, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe introduced a host of measures to minimize the spread of the condition (Covid19).

Some of the restrictions included the closure of borders and restriction of non-essential regional and international travel.

The mega-park is located on the western part of Beitbridge and comprises the Northern Tuli Game Reserve (Botswana), Tuli National Park and Maramani Communal lands (Zimbabwe), and the Mapungubwe National Park (South Africa).

An average of 350 bikers take part in mountain bike tours yearly and the expedition seeks to market the GMTFCA as one of the best tourist resorts in the Sadc region.

The cyclists start off by entering Zimbabwe from South Africa through a makeshift border along the Limpopo River, they stay in the Maramani area for two days before leaving through another makeshift border for Botswana and stay there for a day and ride again into South Africa.

They are expected to ride for over 250km passing through parks, historical, cultural, and wildlife areas within three countries during the course of the event.

The participants are 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 coordinating the expedition on behalf of the three governments.

Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) spokesperson, Mr Godfrey Koti, said the event will boost the country’s MICE tourism concept, which is anchored on Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Events, and Expeditions.

“The Tour de Tuli cycling event that we are hosting together with Botswana and South Africa is a massive expedition we are using this as a marketing tool for the Beitbridge destination.

When we continue to have these events our MICE tourism goes up and we hope that events such as the Beitbridge Expo will continue to run for us to be able to find a way to make it a destination of choice,” he said.

Mr Koti said the tourism sector was shaping up in the country’s southern district where ZTA has recently registered 46 new players in the sector from Beitbridge alone.

He said the authority was hard at work putting the pillars that are required to make the area a destination of choice rather than a transit destination. The official said they have had engagements with the players in the area and agreed to bring the tourism council and the hospitality industry on board to build the capacity of everyone falling in that sector.

“We are noticing that there is some major growth and we have registered 46 new entrances in the sector within Beitbridge alone. This is very encouraging and we had an opportunity to also engage

and agreed that there is potential for us to market this area as a destination of choice but not just a transit destination,” said Mr Koti.

-@tupeyo