Expanded Int’l Airport attracts more visitors to Victoria Falls

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02:49

Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, as one of the world’s seven natural wonders, has always drawn many onlookers. Tourists from around the world flock to Victoria Falls City, every year.

In order to make the travels to this part of the country easier, the Zimbabwean government expanded the airport in 2013. Now the new version of the airport has a capacity of 1.5 million passengers annually, up from the original number of 500,000.

Reaching Victoria Falls had been uneasy before, as few direct flights were provided. Exim Bank of China provided a 150-million-US-dollar loan to build the airport's new runway, taxiways and a terminal in 2013.

Expanded Victoria Falls Int’l Airport. ‍/CGTN Photo

“We have seen the number of airlines coming to this destination, which is also – what I call – a fitter output to the local tourism industry, our hotels. People are visiting the rainforest; people are visiting the falls; people are visiting our national park, because of the new airlines coming in," said Simbarashe Gomo, Resident Engineer of Victoria Falls Int’l Airport.

“The old airport is now the domestic terminal. Its facilities and furnishings were all very old when we first came, and some of the rooftops were leaking. I should say it was easy to work here – both the local government and the civil aviation ministry gave us full support,” said Wei Wei, General Manager of China Jiangsu International, the Chinese company that helped expand the airport.

Victoria Falls – “The smoke that thunders”

Aerial view of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. /CGTN Photo

Victoria Falls, known as "the smoke that thunders" in the local language, is a waterfall in southern Africa on the Zambezi River at the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is clearly visible from the Zimbabwean side, which also has the town named after the falls.

A Scottish missionary and explorer, David Livingstone, is believed to be the first European to view Victoria Falls in 1855, and he named the waterfall in honor of the then British Queen Victoria.

Victoria Falls, classified as the largest one in the world, is actually not the highest nor the widest waterfall globally. The rank is based on its capacity of falling water, with a combined width of 1,708 meters and height of 108 meters, by which Victoria Falls is rivaled only by Iguazu Falls, on the Iguazu River on the border of Argentina and the Brazil.