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Leonard Ncube

Victoria Falls Reporter

A hop-on-hop-off bus service exclusive to Victoria Falls would soon be introduced in the country’s tourism capital to provide shuttle services, especially for tourists.

The service is a joint venture by local entrepreneurs and would have about four shuttle buses providing all-day services around Victoria Falls covering key leisure areas that are not usually frequented by tourists because of transport problems.

The “Bamba Bus” is a hop-on-hop-off service, which will carry tourists and locals around places of interest, making movement around Victoria Falls easy and stylish.

The bus was supposed to have started but delayed because of Covid-19 lockdown and the proprietors have set sights to commence in August.

One of the managers, Mr Alasdair John Benzon, said the buses were made locally in Zimbabwe by renovating old T-35 trucks and painted in bright attractive colours, making them adorable.

The new service will shuttle around suburbs, main shopping areas, Rainforest, the Big Tree, eateries, markets, bars, lodges and other leisure attraction centres around the city, giving tourists a service that has been missing over the years.

“Basically we’ll be running a hop-on-hop-off system through Victoria Falls where clients will pay a daily rate and the bus will drive past most lodges and major attractions on the hour from early morning till late evening,” said Mr Benzon.

The ticket price would be for the whole day and the route will be displayed throughout town for people to know its schedules. The evening run will focus on lodges, restaurants and other night spots excluding the Rainforest.

Mr Benzon said the service would provide a safe, affordable way of getting around town.

“It will be exclusive to Vic Falls and hopefully there will be around 3 or 4 buses eventually. We will try to include all attractions in order to give tourists fair exposure to all establishments,” he said.

“This means some places that are not so well located still get exposure as the bus will go past them.”

Tourists and locals as well, have been exposed to fleecing by taxi operators who would charge exorbitant fees for a single trip taking advantage of absence of commuter transport operators especially between town and the low-density suburbs where a majority of lodges are located.

The new service, which is set to launch this June, will afford tourists and locals an affordable tour around the city in style.