SAFARI - Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism - page 170

copper mines in the deep interior to the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, a 1,155-mile
stretch of track over difficult terrain. It was the largest foreign-aid project in the country at
the time, costing $500 million.
In 2010 the Zambian government announced that China had invested more than $1
billion, money that created 15,000 jobs. That same year the ugly side of Chinese invest-
ments broke into the news when coal miners of Sinazongwe, in southern Zambia, pro-
tested against their Chinese employers, demanding better pay than their $100-a-month
salary and better living conditions. (Many lived in mud-walled huts that lacked plumbing
or electricity.) In response, the Chinese guards fired into the crowd of protesters, injuring
eleven workers. The mood among the average Zambians changed. News reports listed the
indignities and exploitation of workers at Chinese-operated mines. Zambians had to work
two years before they were given safety helmets and many said they were never given other
safety equipment. China's reputation has never quite recovered.
Yet the Chinese didn't give up, and one of their new offensives was to promote Chinese
tourists coming to Africa. The Chinese government opened its first official African office
in Cameroon in 2010 with a partner office in Shanghai. The Chinese are promoting
themselves as “the future of African tourism” and are marketing exotic trips to Africa to
“the new generation of 50 million Chinese outbound tourists.”
The highlight of our conference was a day trip to the Victoria Falls. We flew to Liv-
ingstone, named after the Scottish missionary and African explorer who was the first
European to see the falls. He is honored in Zambia for his strong stance against slavery.
The falls are easily the top tourist spot in Zambia, a point made by Minister Namugala,
who was relaxed away from the microphones. She wanted the important foreign officials,
especially from the United Nations World Tourism Organization, to see the modern lux-
ury hotels recently built near the falls. Before we had lunch at the Sun Hotel, Namugala
told me she saw herself as a businesswoman as well as a government official. “I made
money from gas stations and fast-food joints. I like making money and I like helping
people, helping my home village and women, old ladies. I love old ladies.”
She went over to greet a row of women wearing native costumes waiting to sing at a ce-
remony to plant a tree to celebrate peace through tourism. Their music lifted our wilting
spirits on that hot day. Afterward we walked to the falls. As majestic as advertised, the falls
seemed of a piece with the green landscape, pastoral where the Grand Canyon is rugged.
“Welcome to Mosi-oa-Tunya—the Smoke that Thunders—one of the seven natural won-
ders of the world,” said Namugala, using the Zambian name for the falls. After lunch we
took a short Land Rover tour through the small Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park where we
saw a rare rhino and her calf.
Namugala proved herself an excellent businesswoman. A few months later, the U.N.
World Tourism Organization announced it had chosen Victoria Falls as the site of its
general assembly in 2013, only the second time an African location had been selected.