Tourism offers the best potential for developing a sustainable local economy and growing the gross domestic product of the GLTFCA region.  To realise the tourism potential, facilities need to operate at minimum sustained occupancies to be viable. This is best achieved when the right policy environment helps reduce risk. To extract value, investment is required in facilities, skills and marketing. A well-known destination and a brand make it easier to achieve viability.  

The following are proposed interventions or strategies that must be explored to optimise the opportunities and remove or mitigate some of these major constraints and risks:

1. Phase One: Improving occupancies: Improved air and road access, border crossings and destination marketing;
2. Phase Two: Developing new products: Tourism planning and cross-border events; and
3. Phase Three: Supporting locals capture benefit: Ownership, enterprise development and talent management.

The first priority is to improve the occupancies of the existing tourism facilities in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Adding more facilities without developing strategies to improve the occupancies of existing facilities could jeopardise the financial viability of both sets of facilities.

The following interventions are therefore proposed to bolster occupancies and enhance the viability of existing investments:

1. Improved air access to the area;
2. Improved road access (including border crossings); and
3. Destination marketing and integrated marketing efforts.