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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

A UNITED States travel magazine has once again named Victoria Falls Safari Lodge as one of the 500 best hotels in the world and among the top five in Africa, a tonic that Zimbabwe needs to boost tourism confidence post Covid-19 lockdown.

Victoria Falls Safari Lodge is one of the many facilities in the portfolio of leading Zimbabwean hospitality group, Africa Albida Tourism (AAT), in the country’s prime resort city.

The other facilities under the AAT’s grand banner are Victoria Falls Safari Club, Victoria Falls Safari Suites, Lokuthula Lodges, and the Boma & Dinner Drum Show.

Travel + Leisure is a prestigious American travel magazine based in New York with 8,1 million readers worldwide.

Each year its readers share their thoughts on destinations, city hotels, resorts, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, location, service, food and overall value in the World’s Best Awards survey.

The 2020 survey was closed on March 2 last year just before the lockdown measures were implemented worldwide as the world especially the tourism sector took a knock due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The results of the survey capture readers’ experiences before the pandemic.

This is the ranking in which AAT’s flagship features as one of the 500 best in the world. Facilities were grouped into eight geographical regions namely Africa and the Middle East; Asia; Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific; Canada; the Caribbean; Europe; Mexico, Central America and South America and the United States. The list is only in alphabetical order.

The facility, which is one of the leading hotels in Victoria Falls, is based in the Zambezi National Park and is the second time it has been named one of the 500 best hotels after a similar recognition in 2005.

It was also in the top 25 properties in Africa and Middle East in 2004 and also became the 5th top resort in Africa for 2021, after a similar recognition in 2019. It is the only Zimbabwe facility that made it to the list.