VICTORIA FALLS (Reuters) - Zimbabwe, its economy in ruins, is dreaming of millions of tourist dollars and even training visits by international soccer stars when the World Cup comes to South Africa next year.Scottish explorer David Livingstone is said to have written after first seeing the Victoria Falls in 1855: "On sights as beautiful as this, angels in their flight must have gazed."
The magnificent waterfalls were once one of Africa's biggest tourist attractions, but Zimbabwe's political violence and economic collapse have reduced visitors to a trickle both here and at the country's other attractions. Tourist income has slumped from $360 million at its 1999 peak to $29 million last year.
An influx of soccer fans before or after the tournament would be a godsend for this once prosperous nation and visits by teams like Brazil, Germany or even England would offer a rare morale boost for millions of impoverished but soccer-mad fans.
The sight of David Beckham marvelling at the Victoria Falls or bending a trademark free kick on a local pitch would be a huge coup for a nation battling to shake-off its bad-boy image.
Tourism officials believe Zimbabwe could reap as much as $100 million from the World Cup, a windfall for a government which is broke and continues to be shunned by foreign donors.
The country has made international headlines for all the wrong reasons in the past decade, from violent seizures of white-owned farms, to election violence and political repression to the world's highest rate of hyper-inflation.
"This would be the perfect opportunity to showcase the other side of Zimbabwe by cleaning up our pariah image and showing the world that we have much to offer especially to tourists," said economist John Robertson.
* Guardian
