“At the Victoria Falls there is a well appointed modern hotel, fitted with every convenience such as electric lighting, fans, and perfect sanitation. The cuisine is excellent. The Hotel is situated within ten minutes walk of the falls, to which a light trolley line runs for the convenience of the hotel guests, serving the most interesting points such as the Main Falls, the Rain Forest and the Boating Stage.
The entire Hotel is under the direct control of the Rhodesia Railways, who provide on the broad Zambesia River a splendid boating service consisting of motor launches and Canadian canoes which may be hired at moderate charges.” -1924
Due to the remarkable increase in the number of overseas tourists visiting the Victoria Falls in the mid-1920s, the demand for accommodation at the falls grew. Plans were made to expand the hotel and in 1927 new wings were added to the hotel containing fifty bedrooms with bathrooms and other facilities.
The Hotel had previously purchased a launch boat. Two huts and a boat shelter were developed at the launch site, with boat trips operating upstream to Kandahar Island, where passengers would alight for a picnic, and the canoes downstream to Cataract Island, on the very lip of the Falls. In 1928 the Hotel invested in a second launch and soon after, a third. The Hotel’s boat and canoe service was managed by Victor B Pare, head of the hotels ‘tourism services.’
References
- Southern Rhodesia: An Illustrated Handbook for the Use of Tourists and Settlers (1927)
- The trade, industries, products & resources of South Africa and adjacent territories
- tothevictoriafalls.com
- www.victoriafallshotel.com
