Tourism
Tourism Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the Limpopo river basin and a major source of development income for basin states. Although a precise account of income generated by tourism in the basin is not easy to calculate, the basin is well known for its large and well-managed parks such as Kruger in South Africa and Gonarezhou in Zimbabwe which attract a lot of tourists. There has also been a huge increase of private sector participation in tourism in the basin over the past few years.

Whilst tourism in the basin can be said to be thriving, there are nevertheless concerns that in the SADC region in general, tourism contribution is still much lower than the region’s potential. In South Africa for example, which attracts over half the region’s total visitors, the contribution from tourism was only 4 percent of the GDP in 1995. According to the World Tourism Organisation, world receipts from tourism grew from US$267.6 billion in 1991 to US$337.1 billion in 1994, an increase of 26 percent. During this time, SADC’s share of the world total grew by only 14 percent, from US$1.6 billion to US$1.8 billion.

There are many initiatives on transfrontier conservation areas in the SADC region which have been proposed, including some in the Limpopo basin. The most publicized transfrontier conservation area is the Greater Limpopo Park, which involves a management plan for three protected areas namely Coutado 16 in Gaza in Mozambique, the Kruger National Park in South Africa and Gonarezhou in Zimbabwe. Another notable transfrontier conservation area being proposed is the Tuli/Shashi involving Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

In Mozambique, tourism presents considerable interest in the coastal area of Gaza province, mainly in Xai-Xai. The coastal area has many unique environmental features, and is already attracting visitors from South Africa who drive to the coast and use the camping sites in Xai-Xai beach and Zongoene beach at the mouth of Limpopo River.